The original Nintendo Seal of Quality
Remember those gold ‘Official Nintendo Seal of Quality’ stickers that adorned NES and SNES games? The accompanying game manuals contained a brief explanation, indicating that players should “Always look for this seal when purchasing games and accessories to ensure full compatibility with your Nintendo product.” That sentiment is strikingly similar to Valve’s Deck verified program for the Steam Deck, offering some peace of mind to players considering dropping cash for a game they’ll enjoy on their Deck. Black Myth: Wukong hasn’t received that coveted green checkmark — or any Deck Verified status at all — from Valve.
However, a complete lack of Deck Verified status hasn’t stopped the new don’t-call-it-a-Soulslike action RPG from developer Game Science — from topping the “Steam Deck Top Played” chart this week. dethroning games like Elden Ring and Stardew Valley.
A list of the Top 7 most played games on Steam Deck as of August 22nd at 9am. Pacific.
What is remarkable about this is that Black Myth: Wukong it’s the only game in the top 8 most played Deck games that doesn’t have that glowing green checkmark. And it’s the only title right now top 61 Most Deck games played should not be labeled as having any kind of compatibility, whether it be Verified or Playable.
The game is also pretty demanding, listing an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB or AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB graphics card as its minimum requirement — and this was tested by the developers with some sort of image upscaling enabled. Steam Deck, at least on paper, has slightly less raw computing power than these GPUs. However, it remains a mighty capable gaming laptop.
Currently, over 2.2 million people are playing Black Myth: Wukong on Steam right now.
I guess it’s a testament to the huge popularity Black Myth: Wukong he is currently enjoying. As I write this, it currently has 2,229,858 people playing concurrently on Steam. And it’s a sporty one”Overwhelmingly positiveThe rating is based on 245,000 reviews.
However, with minimal Steam Deck ratings for the game on ProtonDB.com, demanding hardware requirements, and no Deck Verified status to speak of, it’s a bit of a gamble to fork over $60 to play it on Steam Deck. Granted, Valve has a very consumer-friendly refund policy, which negates some of the risk.
All of this suggests that Valve’s Deck Verified program may not carry as much weight as it did in Steam Deck’s first year. As I keep saying, the conversation around Linux gaming has changed significantly thanks to Proton and the Steam Deck. I honestly don’t think the majority of players question whether the Deck can run games anymore or not. Instead, they ask “how well does it work?”
On that note, something tells me I won’t be writing a similar article when Final Fantasy XVI lands on Steam next month…
