Steam Deck: How to tell what games are playable?

Valve will soon be releasing their version of a handheld console called the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck is supposed to be as if you are bringing your PC on the go. The possibilities are endless with the soon to be handheld console and you can customize it just as if you were to customize a gaming PC.

The Steam Deck will have the Steam Store that allows you to download and play your favorite games. Initially, it was perceived to be that you would be able to play almost any game that you have in you Steam Library. However, Valve is releasing a series of four different symbols that will help you easily identify which games are compatible and what games are yet to be integrated to the new console. Valve is currently testing out the entire steam catalog to give each game one of the four symbols.

Green Checkmark

If you are browsing through the Steam Store on the Steam Deck and you notice that a game has a green checkmark, that means that the game is considered “great to play” on the Steam Deck. You will be able to play any games that have a green checkmark next to them on your Steam Deck. It is pretty straightforward. The more games with a green checkmark, the more games that you will be able to enjoy without any problems.

Yellow Caution

Another symbol you may come across is what appears to be a yellow circle with an “I” in the middle of it. This reminds me of a symbol of caution. If you come across one of these  games that means that it is playable, but you may need to tweak some sort of settings to get the full experience. For example, Team Fortress 2 is one of the games with the yellow symbol and some functionality is not accessible using the default controller configuration. If you are wondering what about the game needs to be changed, you’ll be able to see Steam Deck compatibility details for every game that has been reviewed, giving you the information you need to inform your playing and purchasing decisions.

Unsupported

If a game is not functional on the Steam Deck it will feature what appears to look like a Gray circle with a line going through it diagonally. This means that particular video game is currently not supported on the Steam Deck, but may be in the future. With all the new technology that Valve will be experimenting with, they will be trying to figure out many different ways to make as many of the games in their store compatible. Hopefully, there won’t be too many video games with this symbol.

Question Mark

A question mark is the final symbol and perhaps the symbol is perfect for its meaning. All the question mark means is that the video game has yet to be checked for compatibility as of yet.

Like I said before, Valve is testing out the entire Steam Library and thus it is going to take a very long time given the amount of games the Steam store has. Valve has made it very easy to tell right away which games will and will not work. Hopefully, your favorite games all have the green checkmark at launch!