If you picked up Masters of Albion on Steam hoping to play Peter Molyneux's new god game on your Steam Deck, you've hit a wall. The game currently carries an Unsupported label on Valve's platform, meaning Steam is actively warning players away from playing it on the handheld. The catch? Developer 22cans spent considerable time preparing it specifically for that hardware and went on record saying the game was "fully optimised for handheld" before launch.
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What 22cans said before launch
Ahead of the game's early access release in late April, 22cans published a Steam blog post that read, "We have spent a significant amount of time setting this up, making sure that Masters is a smooth, playable experience on the Deck." The studio listed trackpad support and full Steam Input support among the handheld-specific work they had completed. The post even addressed the verification gap directly: "Until we receive the official 'Verified' badge, Masters of Albion may show as Unknown or Playable on Steam. However, we consider the game fully optimised for handheld."
That confidence turned out to be misplaced, at least by Valve's measure.
The performance reality at launch
Playing Masters of Albion on the Steam Deck at launch told a different story. At the lowest available settings, the game hovered around 30 fps but regularly dropped into the mid-20s and even into the late teens. That kind of inconsistency is exactly what Valve's Unsupported designation is designed to flag, and the note attached to the game's listing spells it out plainly: "This game's graphics settings cannot be configured to run well on Steam Deck."
The controls situation was more nuanced. Using the Steam Deck's onboard trackpads made the game workable, given how mouse-dependent it is. Docked play without a mouse was a non-starter. So the experience was technically functional but not something most players would find comfortable.
22cans responds, promises re-verification
22cans acknowledged the gap between their assessment and Valve's outcome. "We do recognise Valve's assessment, and as a result performance optimisation remains a primary ongoing focus for the team," the studio confirmed. "When we do roll out further performance updates, we will reassess against Valve's requirements and pursue re-verification accordingly."
They also pushed back slightly on the severity of the label: "Masters of Albion is playable on Steam Deck, and we've received positive feedback from community members on their experience. However, the game does not currently meet Valve's performance thresholds for an official compatibility badge."
That framing is fair. The game runs. It just doesn't run well enough for Valve to sign off on it.
The bigger problem with Steam Deck verification
Here's the thing: this situation is not unique to Masters of Albion. The Steam Deck verification system has a long history of producing results that leave players and developers confused. Games like Oblivion Remastered, Borderlands 4, and The Outer Worlds 2 all carry Verified or Playable status despite performance on the handheld that many players would describe as poor. Meanwhile, Masters of Albion gets Unsupported for similar issues.
The core inconsistency is that Valve's compatibility checklist for Steam Deck does not set a defined minimum frame rate threshold, whereas the newer Steam Machine standard requires 1080p at 30 fps before a game can even launch. That gap between the two systems is becoming harder to ignore as Valve's hardware ecosystem expands.
Skyrim, to use one well-known example, has spent months as the most-played Unsupported game on Steam Deck, which tells you everything about how much the label actually changes player behavior. But for a new early access title like Masters of Albion, the Unsupported tag carries real weight at the point of purchase.
Where this leaves Steam Deck players
The situation for Masters of Albion is not permanent. 22cans has committed to ongoing performance work and plans to submit for re-verification once updates are in place. Given that the game is in early access, performance improvements are a reasonable expectation over time.
What this episode does highlight is how much the verification process can diverge from developer expectations, and how little transparency exists around the specific thresholds that determine outcomes. For Steam Deck owners, the practical advice is to treat the Unsupported label as a genuine warning for now, not a bureaucratic quirk to ignore.
Keep an eye on the Masters of Albion Steam page for updates as 22cans continues optimisation work through early access.
