“Steam Deck Verification Achieved for Subnautica 2, Forza Horizon 6, Mina the Hollower, and Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight”

"Steam Deck Verification Achieved for Subnautica 2, Forza Horizon 6, Mina the Hollower, and Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight"

An unusually busy May for game releases is turning into an unusually bounteous month for the Steam Deck, with Valve granting their seal of handheld PC approval – Steam Deck Verified status – to a wave of new and upcoming games. Among these are the early access version of Subnautica 2, which finally launches this week after what feels like eons of legal sniping, as well as open-world racer Forza Horizon 6 and caped minifig crusade Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight.

A game earning a Verified checkmark denotes it as fully Deck-ready, in terms of performance, control compatibility, and general legibility on the dinky 800p screen. None of those three games are massively surprising recipients, given the original Subnautica and Forza Horizon 5 both handled fine on the Steam Deck – and Lego Batman is a Lego game – but it’s nice to get confirmation regardless.

They’re also not the only ones that have recently won the coveted checkmark. Long-awaited mouse scrapper Mina the Hollower, from Shovel Knight devs Yacht Club Games, has also been Verified – despite not being out until May 29th. The newly-released Outbound is Verified too, as is last week’s musical beat ‘em up Dead as Disco, nostalgiafest Mixtape, cosy brewing sim Coffee Talk Tokyo, and slightly pervy platformer Motorslice. Supermassive’s Directive 8020, meanwhile, only gets the ‘good enough’ Steam Deck Playable badge.

Because the upcoming Steam Machine is fundamentally just a big, screenless Steam Deck, all of these will eventually earn Steam Machine Verified status as well. Obviously, though, Valve’s return to the living room PC concept hasn’t had as much luck with launching as the Steam Controller has, owing to continuing component shortages.

For Subnautica 2 and Forza Horizon 6, these certifications may come as a welcome bit of good news while they both deal with major leaks just days from release.