Several users report that Ubisoft Steam Deck games are no longer working due to a recent Ubisoft Connect update. Specifically, trying to launch a game that requires Ubisoft Connect, like Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs 2, or Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands, causes a pop-up to appear on Steam Deck or Linux saying that there’s an unrecoverable error and the game needs to be shut down.
Ubisoft can’t guarantee Steam Deck or SteamOS compatibility
User NobulTech on Twitter asked Ubisoft if anyone had been running into issues with the publisher’s games on Steam Deck after receiving the error message. The user tried switching to a stable channel and different versions of Proton without being able to resolve the issue. Another user named FreeWaveSteve corroborated the problem, saying that Wildlands and Watch Dogs Legion could not be launched on Steam Deck, either.
Ubisoft Support then replied in a tweet (posted above) saying that the publisher is “unable to guarantee full compatibility between Ubisoft games and services and Steam Deck / Steam OS.” While certain games might work, there’s not much Ubisoft Support can do to help with Steam Deck compatibility issues.
It’s unclear at this time when or if Ubisoft will be able to fix the problem. It may be on Valve to fix the issue, as it did before when the EA App broke on Proton in early December 2022.