Battlefield 6 won't play on Steam Deck, but other PC handhelds might work

In a recent interview with PCGamesN, EA executive vice president Vince Zampella confirmed that Battlefield 6 won't run on the Steam Deck at launch but hasn't yet ruled out support for other PC gaming handhelds.

Although we don't yet have confirmation of the Battlefield 6 system requirements, an early look at the specs for Battlefield Labs suggests the game won't run on anything below an Nvidia RTX 2060. This would  naturally make it challenging for even the best handheld to run, but we suspect the lack of compatibility is down to other factors. What we do know is that the Steam Deck is a complete non-starter, according to Zampella.

We spoke to Zampella and Battlefield general manager, Byron Breede, at the recent Battlefield 6 multiplayer reveal event in LA. Part of our chat focused on the game's plans for handhelds and whether the demanding FPS would work on the likes of the ROG Ally or the Steam Deck.

While initially unsure, Zampella eventually confirmed, "It does not work on Steam Deck. I think there are some non-Steam-Deck handheld platforms that it will work on, probably, right? But I don't think, you know, it's probably not the best way to play the game."

While no specific reason was given for the lack of Steam Deck compatibility, it's likely due to the inclusion of EA anti-cheat, which is known to be incompatible with Linux. Given the publisher has seemingly forced anti-cheat into all of its games with online components, BF6 being a non-starter on the Deck isn't surprising, but it's still unfortunate to have Valve's handheld written off entirely because of its operating system rather than its power.

When it comes to the hot topic handheld at the moment, the Switch 2, Zampella confirms, "We're not doing Switch yet. Well, I'm not saying we are. I'm just saying we're not considering it right now."

Time will tell how Windows handhelds fare with Battlefield 6. You can check out our AOKZOE A1X review to read more about one of the latest handhelds to hit the market sporting the Microsoft operating system.

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Additional reporting by Sam Comrie.