Valve reveals which games are verified for the Steam Deck

With Steam Deck expected to reach the hands of customers sometime next month, Valve is publicly labeling which games will and won’t work on the mobile PC. Valve currently has four game classifications on the Steam Deck, with “verified” meaning that players will be able to play a game seamlessly, while “playable” games will require the user to make some changes. A decent number of Steam’s games will also be unsupported on the Steam Deck, namely all VR titles listed on the online games marketplace. A list of all Steam Deck-rated games has been put together on SteamDB, although it’s much smaller than Steam’s full catalog, clocking in at just 67 titles. Of that 67, not every game is Steam Deck-verified either. A significant number of games, including Dyson Sphere Program, Valheim, Inscryption, and more are currently listed as “playable” on the Steam Deck. In many of these cases, in-game text is too small to read on the Steam Deck’s portable screen, or players have to use the Steam Deck’s touchscreen or on-screen keyboard. That’s not to say that there isn’t a decent list of Steam Deck-verified games as well. Death Stranding, Sable, Noita, Cuphead, and many other titles are listed as working perfectly on the Steam Deck. For the Steam Deck, this list will possibly determine whether or not the experimental console succeeds or fails. While the novelty of accessing a Steam library’s worth of games on the go is attractive, it won’t mean much of many of those titles are unplayable or require numerous tweaks on the part of users. Later this year, the Team Fortress 2 Classic mod will arrive on Steam to let you step back in time to the early days of Valve’s class-based shooter, when it was more game than hat collection simulator. The mod has been available since 2020 (with consistent updates to boot), but this will be the first time it’s officially available on Steam. The announcement follows last week’s release of the TF2 source code. Valve has a history of supporting the modding community, but the company’s full release of the source code came as a surprise. Now players and modders alike are taking full advantage of the opportunity to breathe new life into the 18-year-old game. The first of many Steam Next Fests to be held in 2025 is here, which means there are more game demos to try out than anybody has time for. The latest iteration of the PC storefront’s event spotlighting upcoming titles with playable demos runs from February 24 through March 3, but where to start? Early standouts include the absurd Skin Deep and turn-based strategy game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown. These barely scrape the surface of what Next Fest offers. To make things a little easier, here are ten incredible demos to start with if you are feeling lost.
Demon Tides
Demon Tides – Demo Teaser If you are itching for more 3D platforming goodness after last year’s Astro Bot, try out Demon Tides. The cartoonish adventure set in a world of islands and open oceans is a responsive and frenetic platformer with a lot of promise. While the demo doesn’t give us the deepest look into how Demon Tides will expand its story and players only get a taste of the platforming, what is there is solid enough to put this game immediately on my wishlist after playing.
Despelote
Despelote – Release Date Trailer | PS5 & PS4 Games Steam Next Fest is here and you’re likely about to be up to your eyeballs in video game demos. There are plenty of promising indies you can try for free during the event, and we’ll coming at you with some recommendations as we uncover the gems. If you need a place to start, though, look no further than Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown. The Turtles’ latest adventure is unlike any they’ve embarked on before. It’s not some form of beat-em-up, but a turn-based strategy game by I Am Your Beast developer Strange Scaffold. The tactics genre may sound like an odd fit for our reptilian friends on paper, but it works surprisingly well. That’s thanks to a new spin on the genre that gives players much more to do on a single turn. It’s a fast-paced tactics game that feels spiritually linked to the Turtles’ arcade days in ways you may not see coming.