Now that the Steam Deck has been around for a while and we all know what it's going to do, we're starting to see game developers come out and comment. And, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot shared his thoughts on the future handheld gaming device. As reported by IGN, an investor asked the CEO what he thought of Steam Deck, and Guillemot said that Ubisoft would put its games on the platform if it was successful, also saying "we're happy to see Steam Deck enter the industry." . But whether or not Ubisoft officially releases its games "for the Steam Deck", whatever that means, the games will still be playable.
An open approach
Ubisoft has essentially stopped putting its games on Steam starting with The Division 2, putting them exclusively on its own store and the Epic Games Store, giving the company a much larger share of sales. Yves Guillemot may have wanted to say that if Steam Deck takes off in a big way, Ubisoft would consider putting their games back on Steam, as EA did recently. But it's not like the Ubisoft fans who wanted to play these games are going to be left behind anyway. Valve has made it very clear that it will allow users to install any software on the Steam Deck, including third-party stores like the Ubisoft Connect Launcher or the Epic Games Store, which means that all Ubisoft games will be taken over in one way or another. Although, to be fair, it would be ideal if it meant that Ubisoft was going to port their games to Vulkan, allowing them to run natively on SteamOS, instead of relying on Proton's translation layer. But even then, looking at ProtonDB, where users report compatibility, Assassins Creed Odyssey is rated gold, meaning Assassins Creed Valhalla would probably be the same, because it runs on the same engine. Long before the release of the Steam Deck, I'm not sure how Proton will work with games that aren't purchased through Steam, but according to this Reddit thread, it's possible.
A nerd's paradise
But the great thing about Steam Deck is that we don't have to rely on what big game executives decide is worth doing with the platform. It runs on an x86 platform and is also completely open, which means that users will end up making the rules. While I like that SteamOS is probably better when Steam Deck comes out than it was when I last used it in 2018, I intend to clean up my handheld when I get mine in the mail and install Windows 10. Next, I'm going to install something. like Playnite to easily launch games from multiple stores without spending too much time on that small 7-inch screen. And I think more than anything, this is where the Steam Deck will shine. Longtime PC gamers like me, who live to play with things (and potentially smash things), are going to have a blast with the new handheld, precisely because there won't be any rules. Regardless of what Ubisoft says about its "coming to Steam Deck" games, I'll be playing Assassins Creed Valhalla on Steam Deck within a day of the handheld showing up on my front porch, and I guess I'm not the only one. Today's best Assassin's Creed Valhalla deals
