How to play Black Ops 6 on Steam Deck

While Black Ops 6 is scheduled to release on October 25, 2024, the beta came out on September 6, 2024, and is currently available for free. It can be played on the PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, although some may want to try on Valve's Steam Deck. However, playing the latest Call of Duty on this device is a little challenging.

It is definitely possible to play the title on Valve's handheld console but keep in mind that the process requires some special measures. This article will explain how one can play the Black Ops 6 beta on the Steam Deck.

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Play Black Ops 6 on Steam Deck

The first and perhaps most important thing to note is that Black Ops 6 is not natively supported on the Steam Deck. The handheld device runs on SteamOS, a Linux-based operating system, and this is what stops the Activision title from running out of the box.

The only way to play the game on Valve's handheld console is by dual-booting your system to Windows 11. Follow these steps to run Black Ops 6 on your Steam Deck without any hassle:

• First, prepare a microSD card by uploading Windows 11 onto it from your computer.
• Next, insert the microSD card into your Steam Deck and set it up to support Windows 11.
• Once this process is complete, you can go to the Store from the panel on the left end of the screen by pressing the 'Steam' button on the Deck.
• Here, click on the Search option and type 'Black Ops 6'.
• This will take you to the game's page and you can begin installing it at once. Currently, the game is in its Open Beta stage so you can only download it for free.
• Valve recently released some drivers to support Windows, these should help you optimize the game to a certain degree. Once you're in-game, adjust settings according to your preference. Low settings are recommended for the best results.

Well, that will do it. The complicated part of the process is to actually get Windows 11 onto your Steam Deck. This is also the most crucial step since the anti-cheat for Activision's latest title does not support the Linux-based OS. Once you have the dual-boot figured out, the remaining steps are easy to follow and execute.