2 days ago, a new update was pushed out to Gears 5 to make sure the game can launch on the Steam Deck. The developers didn't provide any specifics on the updates, only stating that there was updates to provide access to Steam Deck:

Gears 5 Steam Deck Update

Ultimately, it doesn't seem the update did a significant amount as the online multiplayer still doesn't work, showing an error that it can't connect. If you force compatibility with Proton GE 7-17 though, which you can find out how to get from our guide, the multiplayer should work. I did have some issues when changing Proton layers so much, but if you stick to 7-17, you should be okay.

Gears5Error

The single-player works fine without forced compatibility though, which is awesome to see. And Gears 5 can play extremely well, hitting 60 FPS most of the time in single-player and the entire time during multiplayer with no caps and at Ultra settings. Hopefully, we will see an update that makes multiplayer work without any need to force Proton, but for now, GE is the way to go.

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Noah Kupetsky
A lover of gaming since 4, Noah has grown up with a love and passion for the industry. From there, he started to travel a lot and develop a joy for handheld and PC gaming. When the Steam Deck released, it just all clicked.
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