Microsoft Isn’t Allowing Halo To Work On Steam Deck

Xbox Game Studios has announced which of its games will be playable on Steam Deck and which are verified. Unfortunately, the Halo games are some of the ones not to listed as playable or verified on the Steam Deck. The subtle difference between “playable” and “verified” is that the former are games that have been tested on the Deck but not completely and may have some bugs. Verified games are ones that have been officially approved by Valve as working with no issues. While the list of playable and verified games from Microsoft is long, the most notable games are the ones that haven’t made the cut.

Those games are the recently released Halo: Infinite, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Gears 5, and Microsoft Flight Simulator X. That means some of Microsoft’s biggest games won’t be available on the Steam Deck. Microsoft says the games are unsupported due to anti-cheat measures. That’s the same reasoning Bungie gave for not allowing Destiny 2 to be played on the Steam Deck. Regardless, it’s a disappointment for Xbox fans who have Steam Decks since Halo is without a doubt the company’s biggest franchise.

To see which games have made the cut, here’s a full list. Every game below is one that Xbox Game Studios has listed as either verified or playable on the Steam Deck.

Verified

• Deathloop
• Psychonauts 2
• Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
• The Evil Within
• Fallout Shelter
• Prey (2017)
• Battletoads
• Max: The Curse of Brotherhood

Playable

• Sea of Thieves
• Fallout 4
• Forza Horizon 5
• Forza Horizon 4
• Quantum Break
• State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition

Interestingly, two of Microsoft’s currently big online games, Sea of Thieves and Forza Horizon 5 are playable which means they either don’t have anti-cheat functionality or that Microsoft isn’t concerned about cheaters in those games.

The Steam Deck now has over 1,000 games that are either verified or playable on the system. There’s certainly plenty to play without games like Halo but it’s still disappointing to see them not coming to the Steam Deck.

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