Black Ops 6 – Can you play the new Call of Duty on the Steam Deck?

Valve’s Steam Deck is the go-to for many gamers when it comes to gaming on the go or even gaming in bed, but it doesn’t play nicely with some games due to its Linux-based operating system.

The issue arises mainly when games that use Anti-Cheat software – competitive FPS games are a prime example – as the majority of Anti-Cheat add-ons only work on Windows and not Linux.

Readwrite recently covered how anti-cheat was being retro-fitted onto older shooters such as Battlefield, but there is no real surprise that the new Black Ops 6 version of Call of Duty is coming pre-packaged with Ricochet, which unfortunately does not work under Linux, rendering Black Ops 6 – out of the box at least, incompatible with the Deck.

Black Ops 6 is not going to be getting Valve’s seal of approval any time soon, nor will you be playing it on a regular Steam Deck. We have to wait for anti-cheat software to embrace Linux before there will be further progress on Steam Deck compatibility out of the box.

Here is where things get interesting. It is possible to play BO6 on your Steam Deck if, and only if, you are prepared to set it up to dual-boot with Windows, which is certainly not something everybody will want to try. If you already have a Deck that dual-boots or have been toying with the idea, then once you have it up and running Ricochet and Black Ops 6 will play happily on your Steam Deck as it would on any other PC.

Temper expectations in terms of performance, although when we tested during the multiplayer beta recently we didn’t drop below 50FPS that often, and when we did we couldn’t say for sure whether it was due to the Packet Burst issue that plagued the first beta weekend.

When things are running smoother you can also try turning on FSR upscaling to improve performance still further.

So, in short, if Black Ops 6 on the Steam Deck is the ultimate goal it can definitely be done, just be prepared to considerably alter your stock experience of your handheld in the process.

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