Microsoft already has a dominant hold on Steam thanks to Windows 10’s ubiquity on the game streaming platform. The company’s reach on the service has been extended to Linux. That’s because Valve has today announced Steam Play for Linux now supports the Windows games library.
Steam Play was announced way back in 2010 and support games across Windows, MacOS, and Linux. For the first time, Valve has opened the door for Windows games support through Steam Play on the open source Linux platform.
The company worked with CodeWeavers to enable the integration. CodeWeavers ports applications and software from one platform to others. For example, we talked to the company in 2016 about its efforts to bring Windows applications to Google Chromebooks.
What’s important to know about CodeWeavers is its ports are not emulators, but instead fully functioning versions ported to another platform. In terms of integrating Steam Play Windows games with Linux, the company developers a modified Wine distribution
Valve calls this modification Proton. It allows Wine to gain some important gaming focused features, like fullscreen support, and controller compatibility. Additionally, OpenVR libraries are also available.
Tested Games
Out of the gate, the number of games available for Steam Play on Linux are limited. Valve lists the following titles as tested and working:
- Beat Saber
- Bejeweled 2 Deluxe
- Doki Doki Literature Club!
- DOOM
- DOOM II: Hell on Earth
- VFR DOOM
- Fallout Shelter
- FATE
- FINAL FANTASY VI
- Geometry Dash
- Google Earth VR
- Into The Breach
- Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012
- Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013
- Mount & Blade
- Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword
- NieR: Automata
- PAYDAY: The Heist
- QUAKE
- T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
- Star Wars: Battlefront 2
- Tekken 7
- The Last Remnant
- Tropico 4
- Ultimate Doom
- Warhammer® 40,000: Dawn of War® – Dark Crusade
- Warhammer® 40,000: Dawn of War® – Soulstorm?
Full Catalog
Hardly an exhaustive list, but there are admittedly some interesting titles includes. Valve is working towards testing more games from Windows to the party in the future. In fact, the company wants users to vote on which titles they would like to see tested.
It is worth noting that the list above is for titles Valve has tested and believes are working well. All other Windows library games are available, but they may have issues. For gamers who can handle that, head to the Steam Play options and select ‘Enable Steam Play for all titles’ option.
