Destiny 2 will be another popular, online-only multiplayer game to abandon complete support for the newly launched Steam Deck.
According to an updated Steam guide from earlier today, developer Bungie wants to make it loud and clear 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.”
Launching the game on Steam Deck through its native SteamOS will only return players to their Steam libraries. Bungie also warned that attempting to “bypass Destiny 2 incompatibility will be met with a game ban.”
Bungie has not explained why it is taking such strict measures against Steam Deck, but the developer is likely not willing to risk a surge in cheating.
Steam Deck uses a Linux-based operating system which can technically grant users the freedom to restrict access to applications running on their handheld. In other words, being able to fool the anti-cheat to inject cheats in the game.
Fortnite was previously taken off the board for Steam Deck for the same reason. Epic Games stated then that it has little to no confidence in combating cheaters on the new handheld. That was despite an ongoing collaborative effort between Epic Games and Valve to support Easy Anti-Cheat and BattlEye on Steam Deck.
Both Fortnite and Destiny 2 use BattlEye to detect and stop cheaters. According to Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, Steam Deck-supported anti-cheats will work fine for most games, just not for games catering hundreds or even thousands of more players in comparison. The threat level would be just too high.
The Witch Queen expansion was released for Destiny 2 around a week back and has been hailed for featuring some of the best in-depth campaign mode to date. The first Steam Decks on the other hand also rolled out in the last week.
