GTA V declared “unsupported” on Steam Deck after BattlEye anti-cheat update

Facepalm: Rockstar Games has apparently broken compatibility between Grand Theft Auto V and Valve’s Steam Deck handheld. The revelation comes on the heels of a recent update to Valve’s listing for the game, which now marks GTA V as “unsupported” due to issues with online multiplayer.

GTA V has consistently been among the top 20 most played games on Steam Deck for at least two years, and even remained in the top 10 list this week. However, the game’s online mode has long been plagued by cheaters. To fix the problem, Rockstar Games implemented the BattlEye anti-cheat system.

The software helps developers detect and block cheat programs, tampering with game-protected code, and other forms of sabotage. It is commonly used in other games such as ARMA, PUBG: Battlegrounds, and The Crew 2.

Unfortunately, BattlEye has also brought with it an unintended side effect: Steam Deck users are locked out. Because of this, GTA V is now listed as “unsupported” in a new warning on the game’s Steam page.

Rockstar has apparently denied responsibility for the outage, claiming on its FAQ page that “Steam Deck does not support BattlEye for GTA Online” and referring all questions to Valve.

However, this claim seems questionable. The Verge reports that Valve enabled BattlEye compatibility for the Steam Deck years ago, and numerous games using the anti-cheat software have been switched over without a problem. The publication points out that Valve has even stated that enabling a BattlEye-protected game on the Steam Deck is as easy as sending an email.

Worse still, Rockstar remains silent on the reasons why established protocol is not being followed, leaving players baffled.

Thankfully, GTA V’s single-player mode is still available, even if multiplayer is inaccessible. It might be more accurate to list GTA V as “partially playable” rather than labeling it as “unsupported,” as this better conveys that the game isn’t completely broken.

“Steam Deck does not support BattlEye for GTA Online. You can play GTA V’s story mode, but not GTA Online,” Rockstar’s FAQ states.

The caveat is that Rockstar hasn’t provided the same evolving content pipeline for Story Mode over the years as it has for GTA Online, so Deck owners are limited to replaying the same decades-old story.

Photo credit: Richardgbg06