Battlefield 6 skips Steam Deck, but will run on other handhelds

EA's highly anticipated Battlefield 6 will be released later this year and is currently making waves thanks to the recent gameplay trailer, hands-on previews, and upcoming Open Beta. Even though the game looks like it's going to ship in a well-optimized state, with the minimum GPU spec asking for a GeForce RTX 2060 and a GeForce RTX 3060 Ti recommended for 1440p 60FPS action, Battlefield 6 won't be receiving Steam Deck support.

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During a recent Battlefield 6 multiplayer reveal event for media and creators, PCGamesN sat down with Battlefield chief Vince Zampella to discuss the possibility of the game running on PC gaming handhelds like Valve's Steam Deck and ASUS's ROG Ally.

"It does not work on Steam Deck," Vince Zampella responded when asked about the game running on PC gaming handhelds. "I think there are some non-Steam-Deck handheld platforms that it will work on, probably, right? But I don't think, you know, it's probably not the best way to play the game."

With the game's modest hardware requirements, the reason for Battlefield 6 not running on Steam Deck probably comes down to it employing a kernel-level anti-cheat system called Javelin. Since the Steam Deck is Linux-based and not a Windows device, most games run using Valve's Proton compatibility layer, which has compatibility issues with Battlefield 6's anti-cheat system.

This is also why Vince Zampella says that the game will work on "non-Steam-Deck handheld platforms," like the Windows-based ROG Ally; however, performance could be an issue. PCGamesN also asked about Battlefield 6 potentially making its way to Nintendo Switch 2, which Zampella didn't rule out but did confirm that it's not something the team is currently working on.