You just have to know where to look.
One of the handy aspects of the Steam Deck is Valve’s handy verification system, which tells you how a game will (ideally) run on the laptop before you start it, and whether you can stick to the default settings or need to make some adjustments. If a game has been tested by the company, it will be marked as Verified, Playable, or Unsupported, and while it’s not a perfect system, it goes a long way in bridging the gap between complicated PC gaming and console ease of use. It’s taken a while to arrive, but the same compatibility details are now starting to emerge for the Steam Engine, albeit oddly hidden.
As spotted by Rock Paper Shotgunthere was a lot of confusion about the new launch Assassin’s Creed Black Flag resynced get verification from Steam Machine without there being any evidence of this on Steam. But that has changed, if you know where to look.
I (unfortunately) don’t have a steam engine, so I don’t know what happens if you charge the Assassin’s Creed Black Flag resynced store page via SteamOS on the new PC, but I went into the Steam desktop app on my MacBook and found its Steam Machine check buried in Steam. Bridge compatibility details. If you scroll down to this section (it’s located on the right of the page under the languages section) and click “Learn More”, you will see a tab for the Steam Engine next to the decks in the pop-up window. Click on it and you get the usual three-step approval found on verified Steam Deck games.
According to Steam, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag resynced fully supports controllers when played on the Steam Machine, displays controller icons, and works well with the Steam Machine’s default graphics configuration. That means it gets that all-important Verified badge. I also tried searching for a few other games that came to mind including The Devil May Cry 5 And Cutting headand they also appear as Verified. In a strange turn of events, Valve’s own Dota 2 is only listed as “playable” (as it is on Steam Deck) due to the occasional appearance of pesky mouse and keyboard icons and the game sometimes requiring you to use an on-screen keyboard to enter text.
Valve is likely planning to make Steam Machine compatibility more immediately clear in its store, but for now at least, anyone lucky enough (and deep-pocketed) to have purchased a launch unit knows where to look. And if you’re still wondering whether to part with the better part (or way more) of $1,000 on Valve’s new living room-friendly gaming PC, Woozad’s review went live this week.
