New GTA Online Update Breaks Steam Deck Support

Today, Grand Theft Auto Online received an update, with the PC port of the crime sim finally getting anti-cheating software. Yet not everyone is happy, as this update has now made it impossible to play GTA Online on Steam Deck.

It might be hard to believe this, but GTA Online is now 11 years old. The game launched alongside Grand Theft Auto V back on the Xbox 360 and PS3. It later arrived on PC in 2015 and was also ported to Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and PS5. And while it’s been extremely popular, for nearly a decade the PC version of GTA Online has lacked a proper anti-cheat system to stop players from easily using mod menus and other tools to cause chaos and gain unfair advantages. But that changed on Tuesday, which is nice, unless you enjoyed playing GTA Online on Valve’s portable PC.

On September 17, Rockstar pushed out a new update for GTA Online on all platforms. As part of the PC version’s update, GTA Online now includes BattlEye, a proprietary anti-cheat software used in many other games. Most PC players were happy about this. GTA Online has developed a reputation over the years for being filled with cheaters, modders, and annoying trolls. The hope is that BattlEye will stop some of this and make playing GTA Online in 2024 a better experience on PC.

However, included in a new FAQ about BattlEye in GTA Online, Rockstar confirms that you will no longer be able to play GTA Online on Steam Deck. Players will still be able to enjoy GTA V’s story mode on Deck, but no online play is supported.

And to be clear: This isn’t entirely the fault of BattlEye, which is in many games, some of which work on the Linux-powered Steam Deck. Rockstar could, in theory, update GTA Online to support BattlEye on Steam Deck in a future patch, but the next part of the FAQ seems to suggest that might not happen. Here’s what Rockstar says about GTA V on Steam Deck:

Note: GTAV and GTA Online are not officially supported on Steam Deck and all technical support questions should be directed to Valve’s Steam Deck support content and community.

That seems like Rockstar washing its hands of the situation and moving on. Maybe I’m wrong, but I wouldn’t hold my breath that GTA Online will ever be playable on Steam Deck again.

In other “Rockstar updating stuff” news, an update for the publisher’s PC launcher included some folders referencing GTA 6 and Red Dead Redemption.

The files were quickly removed and as far as I can tell, there wasn’t anything too exciting in there. But, it’s just more evidence that Rockstar seems to be working on a PC port of Red Dead Redemption. That open-world western has been trapped on consoles ever since it launched in 2010. Over the last year or so, evidence seems to be building that maybe, just maybe, RDR will finally get the PC port it deserves.

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