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While I don't believe there was ever explicit support that was given, this is still a sad piece for me to write. Earlier today, Rockstar pushed out a new update for Grand Theft Auto 5, which added in BattlEye anti-cheat to GTA Online. While this is a nice surprise since cheaters in the game have been crazy for years, it also rendered the game unplayable on the Steam Deck.
BattlEye is a proprietary anti-cheat software similar to other tools like Easy Anti Cheat. It has been around since 2004 and has been used in many games like DayZ, Watch Dogs: Legion, and PUBG: Battlegrounds. Now, Grand Theft Auto Online has been added to that list, but unlike other games, there is no Steam Deck support here. BattlEye does actually support the Proton compatibility layer and the Steam Deck, and we have seen some games running on the portable device like Watch Dogs, but GTA Online is not one of them.
One Reddit user went to Rockstar's support to try to ask about the issue as well, and see if something will be fixed in the future. User tornadozx2 posted on r/Linux_Gaming about their experience and the responses they are getting, and it seems unlikely that this will change.
The entire exchange sounds like Rockstar knows about the issue, but will not be doing anything to correct it. The user initially posted this response from Rockstar:
We certainly understand that you are unable to login to GTA online through Steam Deck after the update.
"We would like to inform you that the primary goal of incorporating BattlEye into GTA Online is to enhance the overall gaming experience by actively scanning for cheats and exploits, and preventing players with cheats and mods from entering online. The Steam Deck players will not be able to join GTA Online but should be able to launch single-player without any issues. We appreciate your understanding in this matter."
If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to let us know. We are here to assist you.
And from there, he got another response when pushing further for more information:
"We understand the situation, please note that GTA V and GTA Online are not officially supported on Linux. Unfortunately in this case we're unable to assist but we always welcome feedback and comments from our players we encourage you to please submit any constructive GTA Online suggestions and input that you have via the official Feedback website: https://www.rockstargames.com/gta-online/feedback."
And finally, we had one last response, which makes it sound like there's no chance of this changing:
While I am happy that GTA 5 has some anti-cheat to combat the cheaters, it's a shame that it also comes at the cost of actually being able to play the game on the Steam Deck. It's also almost 11 years since the game has come out, and it's weird that it took this long for it to finally be implemented. Still, for those who enjoy the game, this is awesome, but for Steam Deck users, this is a somber moment.
At least we can still play the single-player though!
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All they can donis ask BattlEye to get opted-in. Oh wait, they won't, because Rockstar is Rockstar, and Rockstar is incompetent.
I would take anything the Rockstar Support team says with a grain of salt. On Reddit there's many different people who got radically different answers for them. Seems more like they just don't know what they're talking about than an actual Rockstar policy.
All this time has passed and they want to put it in at the end of its life. This just proves they were always looking out for the sweats and content creators. RS probably even coded some of the cheats and had them sent to the latter.
This used to be a topic, now it's just well that's the way it is now. The worse human condition I see these days. Enjoy those Shark Cards in GTA6! I will pass on that one. GTA5 was horrible but it is revered by so many. People are destroying my hobby.
Is single player still working? I don't have GTA5 on my Steam Deck, but I was planning on buying it sometime.
Rockstar made a post on Steam saying that anti-cheat can be disabled if players wish to play the Story Mode on Linux/Steam Deck or if they want to use a 3rd-party launcher for the game, presumably for modded servers like FiveM. You won't be able to play regular GTA Online from now on though.