You can’t play MW3 on Steam Deck, here’s why

Portable gaming has never been more in vogue and with the release of the MW3, the most recent game in the long-running Call of Duty series, many will be wondering why the game can’t be played on the Steam Deck.

The Steam Deck was first released by Valve in 2022, although recently a new model was released that boasts an OLED screen. So now, you can play your games with an incredible screen, a criticism many had for the handheld.

Despite being one of the worst-rated Call of Duty's ever, many will still want to know why the game can’t be taken on the go.

Why MW3 won’t run on Steam Deck

Ricochet anti-cheat technology in MW3 means it won’t be able to run on the popular handheld. The technology is included to try to whittle out any cheating from the game and should improve the game overall - it just means it prevents the game from being able to run on the Steam Deck. 

You can always download Windows 11 to your handheld and run it this way. However, it will not be optimised for the device and will result in a lower frame rate, so we wouldn’t recommend it. That's if you even have enough storage space to get the massive 159 GB game installed.

Can the Steam Deck run any COD games? 

If you are here, chances are you want to play Call of Duty on the go. Unfortunately not a single one of the games is verified for the handheld. Once again, you can use different ways to get the games onto the device but we wouldn't recommend it as some features might be missing.

For example, the original Black Ops is missing controller support in the menus. Hopefully, this might change in the future now that Activision/Blizzard has been acquired by Microsoft, potentially leading to the games coming to Game Pass and making them more accessible. However, nothing has been confirmed just yet.

That is all you need to know about MW3 and the Steam Deck. If you are on the hunt for more great guides like how to get the Three-Plate Armour Vest in Zombies or all the Zombie Schematics, then take a look at our Modern Warfare 3 homepage.