GTA Online has been given BattlEye anti-cheat software a decade after it initially launched on PC, and as a result, players can no longer play on their Steam Decks.
It's an interesting move for sure, especially since GTA Online has been a massive cash cow for Rockstar ever since Grand Theft Auto V erupted onto the gaming scene back in 2013. Now, through the use of BattlEye, Rockstar has effectively made one of the most popular ways to play its online mode unusable.
According to an official Rockstar FAQ post, the studio says that while Story Mode is still playable on Steam Deck, GTA Online is no longer supported due to Valve's hardware not supporting BattlEye.
"Steam Deck does not support BattlEye for GTA Online. You will be able to play GTA 5 Story Mode but unable to play GTA Online."
The fact that the mode is getting an anti-cheat addition a decade after its release is eyebrow-raising to begin with, though the PC version's servers are utterly rampant with hackers and cheaters in a way where this feels like an update far too late to matter. But it's made even more eyebrow-raising when you consider, according to The Verge's reporting, that BattlEye can, in fact, work with Steam Deck games.
Other games, such as DayZ, which has BattlEye, are supported on the Deck. The Verge's Sean Hollister reports that getting a BattlEye game running was, at least in the past, as simple as "sending an email."
While there is hope that GTA Online will be playable again on Steam Deck should this fabled BattlEye switch be flipped eventually, it'll be interesting to see how long that takes. In the meantime, it might be time to sideload Windows if you need to keep up your Los Santos escapades while on the go.
