Will Counter-Strike 2 come to Steam Deck?

It might have just been announced, but Valve’s Steam Deck is already in the crosshairs for playing the updated Counter-Strike 2.

Valve hasn’t so much been teasing Counter-Strike 2 in recent weeks, but more telling people that it’s happening. The monitoring of SteamDB has led to excitement and plenty of guesswork.

One thing that wasn’t confirmed in the announcement was whether or not the game will play on the Steam Deck. Well, not “whether or not”, but more “how will it play”.

Source 2 is a fully updated version of Valve’s engine for the last 20-ish years. Originally developed to make Half-Life 2, it was later what powered Team Fortress 2, Portal, and, of course, Counter-Strike.

Valve released Counter-Strike: Source and Global Offensive in 2004 and 2012, which both used the Source 1 engine. As the company moved to Source 2, leading the charge with Dota 2 and eventually Half-Life: Alyx, it left CS: GO to trundle along with the older engine to prevent major upsets in the esports community.

Source 2 hasn’t had a proper run around on the Steam Deck just yet. Dota 2 isn’t exactly pushing boundaries with its performance needs, and Half-Life: Alyx hasn’t received a non-VR version for it to support yet. However, one user did get VR working after a huge workaround.

Will Counter-Strike 2 run on Steam Deck?

Valve

While not officially confirmed, it almost certain that Valve will ensure the Steam Deck runs Counter-Strike 2. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive runs nearly perfectly on the Steam Deck, and with the maximum resolution – unless docked – being capped at 1280×800, we’re confident that the game will play great there too.

Not only is this Valve’s very first massive hardware success but Counter-Strike 2 is presumably following a lot of other esports titles’ design ethos.

Valve and a lot of other developers have ensured that the games they publish to run on nearly everything. This is to assist in Eastern markets where internet cafes are still a big deal, or in poorer areas around the world.

Looking over Source 2 mods of Half-Life: Alyx and the already impressive performance for much more taxing games, the Steam Deck is more than likely to be the best way to play the game on the go.

The only issue you’re going to run into is the lack of a mouse and keyboard, but we’re yet to see if Valve intends to split the player base between the controller and traditional players.

Counter-Strike 2 launches Summer 2023 on PC. A limited test is already available for select players.

For more information about Counter-Strike 2, make sure to check out the links below:

How to play Counter-Strike 2 limited beta test | Is Counter-Strike 2 going to be free to play? | What is sub-tick in Counter-Strike 2? | All smoke changes in Counter-Strike 2 | Can you play Counter-Strike 2 on Linux or macOS? | Can banned CS:GO players play Counter-Strike 2? | What will happen to my CSGO skins? | Will Counter-Strike 2 come to Steam Deck? | Valve officially reveals Counter-Strike 2 | Everything we know about Counter-Strike 2