Bungie Warns Of Bans For Trying To Play Destiny 2 On Steam Deck

Destiny 2 cannot currently be played on Steam Deck, and those who attempt to get around restrictions may be banned.

In an update to its support page for Destiny 2 to coincide with the Steam Deck’s launch, developer Bungie said the game is not supported on Valve’s new handheld or any device that uses Proton, Valve’s Linux solution for playing Window-compatible games.

Destiny 2 can be installed but not launched on Proton, and “players who attempt to bypass incompatibility will be met with a game ban,” according to the page.

Bungie notes that Destiny 2 could work if “Windows is installed and running”, but this is currently not possible on Steam Deck. As we noted in our review in progress of the Steam Deck, Windows can be installed but, due to an unreleased graphics driver for the machine’s GPU, it effectively can’t run.

We added: “Just about every problem comes down to the fact that by default, Steam Deck runs on Valve’s SteamOS – a custom version of Linux that can run a lot of Windows games using software called Proton.

“It’s actually really cool when it works, but a lot of popular games, including Fortnite, Halo Infinite, Destiny 2, and Lost Ark use anti-cheat systems that aren’t compatible with Proton.”

This means that players are currently not able to play Destiny 2 on Steam Deck without tinkering and, as Bungie has made clear, that’s probably not worth the risk.

The Steam Deck has encountered other teething issues following its launch on February 25 such as stick drift issues and the gaming sphere’s hottest current game, Elden Ring, not running very well, though both have already been addressed by Valve.

Overall, IGN said “the Steam Deck is a well-built piece of hardware that feels good to hold and play on,” but “it isn’t the smooth user experience” we had hoped for.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale.