The Steam Deck, Valve's handheld gaming PC, recently turned 1 and yet you couldn't enjoy all your beloved games on it. Mostly due to incompatibilities between Linux or its compatibility layer Proton with certain anti-cheat systems. But as the developers behind those anti-cheat solutions more and more cater towards official Linux-support, in the end it still depends on the decisions of the developers behind those games - because most anti-cheat systems nowadays CAN work with Linux.

Bungie's massive GAAS online shooter Destiny 2 for example leverages BattlEye Anti-Cheat, which officially and natively supports Linux (since Nov 2019) as per tweet by its developer and various games such as Ark prove this on Steam Deck today: "BattlEye has provided native Linux and Mac support for a long time and we can announce that we will also support the upcoming Steam Deck (Proton). This will be done on an opt-in basis with game developers choosing whether they want to allow it or not."

Though Bungie purposely chose to opt against Steam Deck compatibility because of "security concerns due to Linux". (Oddly enough, the Stadia-port of Destiny 2 ran off of Linux.)

The official response from Bungie to the situation remains as follows:

"Players who attempt to launch Destiny 2 on the Steam Deck through SteamOS or Proton will be unable to enter the game and will be returned to their game library after a short time. Players who attempt to bypass Destiny 2 incompatibility will be met with a game ban."

Bungie dedicated a forum post to this topic to "gather feedback and interest in a potential port", although this clearly seems like a marketing placebo to keep people in check. All they have to do, at least technically, is switch a toggle in the game's SteamDB-entry as well as remove the OS-check at the start of the game.

They don't even have to provide the official BattlEye Linux library, as this is easy to do as a user by installing "Proton BattlEye Runtime" per Steam library:

Let's collect signatures to really show how much we would love to see their game flourish on the Steam Deck! Being able to grind away in bed, during the commute and during breaks would massively boost the overall activity of their community. This would also show how they actively care about what people wish for Destiny as a whole.

Even though nothing is guaranteed to change, this might be an effective way to let investors know that the streets are paved with gold.

Eyes up, Guardians! - Timo (the Deckverse guy)