Why the Steam Deck might be too “open” for Fortnite and Destiny 2

Enlarge / The Steam Deck. (credit: Valve)

In our recent review of the Steam Deck portable console from Valve, we noted that continued updates to the company's Proton compatibility layer would help many games designed for Windows run well on the system's Linux-based SteamOS. For a handful of popular online multiplayer games, though, inherent limitations to anti-cheat support on Linux may prevent compatibility with SteamOS (and the vanilla Steam Deck) indefinitely.

That certainly seems to be the case for Destiny 2. In a recent update to the game's help page, developer Bungie notes that "Destiny 2 is not supported for play on the Steam Deck or on any system utilizing Steam Play's Proton unless Windows is installed and running." Since Windows installation is currently not an option on the Steam Deck (due to some lingering driver issues), Destiny 2 players are simply left out of the Steam Deck party for the time being.

More than that, though, Bungie also takes the extreme position that "players who attempt to bypass Destiny 2 incompatibility [on the Steam Deck] will be met with a game ban." That suggests there's more than simple Proton functionality issues at play here.

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