Steam Deck Verified Catalog Swells To Over 100 Games As Shipment Date Draws Close
Barry any last minute delay(s), it won't be long now before Valve's first batch of Steam Deck handhelds begin shipping out—February 25, to be exact. That still gives Valve a few more weeks to test games for launch-day compatibility as part of its Steam Deck Verified program. Valve has already made good progress too, going from having validated around 60 games that work on the Steam Deck, to now more than 100 titles in less than a two-week span.
Valve has take on the monumental task of reviewing its entire Steam catalog on the upcoming handheld gaming device. Following the review process or any particular game, it then gets categorized based on its level of compatibility, or incompatibility if that is the case. This will make it easier for players to find and sort games they intend to play on the Steam Deck.
There are four labels: Verified, Playable, Unsupported, and Unknown. Those that make the Verified cut and earn the covered checkmark promise to deliver "start and go" experiences—it will have passed all compatibility checks. Playable games, on the other hand, don't get a checkmark but have been found to function on the Steam Deck with extra steps or manual work from the users.
Beyond those two categories, ones that fall into the Unsupported category do not function on the handheld due to incompatibility with Proton or specific hardware components, while the Unknown category is a catch-all for games that have not yet been checked.
Ratings can change over time as developers push out updates and/or as Valve improves the Steam Deck's software. That's to say, a game that is deemed incompatible now could be 'Playable' or even qualify for the full 'Verified' badge tomorrow.
It will be easy to sort through the catalog on Steam Deck devices. In the meantime, SteamDB is the go-to resource for seeing what games have earned the Verified badge. In addition, Reddit user ayyvery42 has put up a site that pulls from SteamDB to make it even easier to sort through Verified, Playable, and Unsupported titles.
Looking at the current list, there are now 60 games with the Verified badge (Dishonored, Final Fantasy, Ghostrunner) and another 41 that have qualified as Playable (Battlefield V, Madden NFL 22, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order), meaning Steam Deck owners have over 100 games that will function on their handheld when it arrives. And probably much more when it ships out at the end of the month.
It's good to see the list grow in the homestretch, and kudos to Valve to committing to reviewing the entirety of its massive Steam catalog.
