Can you Play MW2 On Steam Deck?

If you're the lucky owner of both Modern Warfare 2 and a Steam Deck, then you might be wondering if you can use the handheld to play the latest Call of Duty shooter. After all, the idea of playing one of the year's biggest games on the go has an immense appeal. The Steam Deck is designed to let you take your PC games with you anywhere. So, can you actually play Modern Warfare 2 on the Steam Deck?

• Here's how to enable 120 fps in Modern Warfare 2.

Can you Play MW2 On Steam Deck?

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Sadly, Modern Warfare 2 does not work natively on Steam Deck (but there is a workaround). This is all down to the anti-cheat system that Call of Duty uses, known as Ricochet. Ricochet uses software that communicates with the Windows operating system at a kernel level. Because Steam Deck uses a Linux-based operating system, known as SteamOS, Ricochet doesn't work properly. As such, it's not possible to play MW2 on the Steam Deck, despite it being sold on the Steam store.

However, it is possible to play Modern Warfare 2 on Steam Deck if you're willing to sacrifice some time and Steam Deck disk space. If you install a partition of Windows onto the Steam Deck separately, then you will be able to install Modern Warfare 2 and play it via that operating system. Infinity Ward has said that this won't get you banned either since the Ricochet anti-cheat is still operating perfectly.

While Modern Warfare 2 will run well at 60 fps in this state, installing it this way does have some caveats. For one, it will likely take up most, if not all of your available disk space on the Steam Deck with both Windows and Modern Warfare 2 a considerable size. It's not possible to install either onto an external SD card, either. This is because the read and write speeds are simply not fast enough for Windows, unlike SteamOS.

So, while it's possible to run Modern Warfare 2 on Steam Deck, it will require a little bit of legwork and sacrifice. Still, the idea of playing Modern Warfare 2 while on the train to work is incredibly enticing.

For more Modern Warfare 2 guides, keep reading GGRecon.