Bringing Azeroth to Steam Deck: How to Play Battle.net Games

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If you’re a fan of Blizzard’s Battle.net games, you might be wondering if there’s a way to play them on Steam Deck. Battle.net games are some of the most popular games in the world. With millions of players logging in every day, the games are always full of action and adventure. But what if you want to play these games on your handheld Steam Deck device?

Fortunately, there are some ways to do just that. By following a few simple steps, you can be up and playing your favorite Battle.net games on your Steam Deck in no time.

Photo Credit: Stas Malyarevsky/Shutterstock.

How to Install Battle.net On Steam Deck

With the excellent portable gaming system Steam Deck, you can play practically every game that is accessible to PC users. But, you will require a third-party client like Battle.net if you want to play online multiplayer games like Warcraft, League of Legends, and Call of Duty. You may set up Battle.net on your Steam Deck using the instructions in this article.

Downloading Battle.net on Steam Deck

  1. Power on your Steam Deck device.
  2. Hold down the power button to launch the desktop mode.
  3. Open up your preferred browser.
  4. Head to this link, and the download will start automatically within seconds.
  5. After the download has finished, open the Steam client.
  6. Click on the “Games” tab on the top-left of the screen.
  7. Select “Add a non-steam game.”
  8. Select the Browse option.
  9. Go to Home>Deck and then to Downloads.
  10. Change the file type to “All Files”.
  11. Select Battle.net-setup.exe from the download folder.
  12. Click on the “Add selected game” option.
  13.  

Adding Battle.net to Steam Library

  1. Select the battle.net client.
  2. Open the settings icon.
  3. Go to Properties.
  4. Go to Compatibility.
  5. Checkmark the “Force use of Specific Steam Play Compatibility Tool”.
  6. Select the GE-Proton7-10 option from the dropdown menu.
  7. Select the Play button, and the setup process will start.
  8. After the setup process finishes, click on the “Games” tab on the top-left of the screen.
  9. Select “Add a non-steam game.”
  10. Select the Browse option.
  11. Go to Home>Deck>.Local>Share>Steam>Steamapps>Compatdata.
  12. Locate the most recently modified folder containing the battle.net launcher.
  13. Open the folder named pfx.
  14. Go to Pfx>Drive_c>Program Files (x86)>Battle.net.
  15. Locate the Battle.net Launcher.exe file and select it.
  16. Tick the box on the left.
  17. Click on the “Add selected game” option.

The Battle.net Launcher will now be added to your Steam Library.

Using Battle.net with GE-Proton7-10

  1. Click on the launcher and then on the settings icon.
  2. Go to Properties.
  3. Go to Compatibility.
  4. Checkmark the “Force use of Specific Steam Play Compatibility Tool”.
  5. Select the GE-Proton7-10 option from the dropdown menu.
  6. Click on the Play button, and you are ready to play any battle.net games you always wanted to.

Overwatch 2

Fans are jumping into the excitement and are curious about the many platforms and methods that “Overwatch 2” may be played because of all the buzz surrounding the title. The PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series XS, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Windows platforms all presently support “Overwatch 2.” One query, though, is if gamers may use a Steam Deck to introduce “Overwatch 2” into the realm of portable gaming.

The simple answer is yes, which is fortunate for these supporters. Sadly, the lengthy response requires some fiddling with the Steam Deck, which might not be simple for all people. However, if users properly adhere to the correct instructions, they can really enjoy Overwatch on their Steam Deck device.

We can vouch for the fact that “Overwatch 2” can be played on a Steam Deck, but you will need to download some extra programs. In order to alter the essential parameters and options so that “Overwatch 2” will begin and function correctly, players should first download the software Bottles from the Steam Deck. 

It’s crucial to remember that this is not a simple procedure, and problems might occur if something is done incorrectly. Anyone thinking about going through the bother should evaluate their confidence in their skills and whether the effort is actually worthwhile. It could be best for users to really just keep to the PC or some other device unless they want to use their Steam Deck as their main “Overwatch 2” device. The conclusion is still that fans may play Overwatch 2 on Steam Deck if they are prepared to take a chance and put in the effort.

Modern Warfare

Users will have to run Windows using a USB drive in order to begin playing Modern Warfare on Steam Deck. Be careful since this can require you to erase SteamOS in place of Windows. RICOCHET is Windows-compatible after it has been set up on the Steam Deck. Therefore, Modern Warfare 2 will function flawlessly.

The Steam Deck is capable of supporting an 800p, 60FPS gameplay, but then don’t anticipate playing Modern Warfare 2 at a comparable visual and system performance as a desktop or next-gen device. In multiplayer games, you could be at a minor disadvantage towards other gamers; however, if you can connect a gamepad or keyboard and mouse, you will be in a much better position.

Warzone on Steam Deck

Supposedly, Call of Duty: Warzone may be played on a Steam Deck. There are a number of restrictions, though. To begin with, Call of Duty: Warzone cannot be played on the Steam Deck right out of the box. Steam Deck is powered by Steam OS, a cutting-edge mashup of Wine, Proton, and Linux. Sadly, Warzone’s kernel-level anti-cheat seems unsuitable; however, by installing Windows, you completely get around that issue.

Last but not least, the Steam Deck’s architecture is not really the ideal one for playing Warzone. You must set the graphics parameters from Low to Medium, which generally results in a frame rate of between 30 and 60 frames each second, in order to make sure everything is operating as efficiently as possible.

Diablo

Just like any other battle.net game Diablo also requires a bit of tuning here and there and a third-party launcher. If you want to play Diablo on Steam Deck, the steps are as follows.

  1. Download and set up the Heroic Games Launcher first since it makes handling games from GOG extremely simple. You can simply obtain it through Flathub as a Flatpak and through the Discover app on your Steam Deck.
  2. Make an account on GOG with Heroic and install Diablo.
  3. The AppImage may be downloaded from the devilutionX GitHub updates page after that.
  4. Enable execution of the AppImage. 
  5. Insert the AppImage into the Diablo installation folder.

That’s about it; now it will operate using the AppImage, and correctly identify the information and function. To launch it immediately, you may also add it to Steam.

Hearthstone on Steam Deck

It has been reported that Hearthstone is not really compatible with Steam Deck even though you have already installed the battle.net games launcher. Users have reported that even though they added Hearthstone’s exe file as a non-steam game, the Hearthstone exe does not seem to operate well. While some have suggested linking battle.net to Steam and running the game, this may not prove to work for everyone.

Starcraft II on Steam Deck

Many Blizzard games run smoothly on the Steam Deck. The two games with the greatest notoriety in the Blizzard ecosystem are Diablo and World of Warcraft. Many gamers also claim to love playing StarCraft on Steam Deck, however many also mention that in order to make the games run, they had to run a minor workaround and install a launcher named WINE. Although installing this workaround should not take too long, it does include an additional step in addition to installing Blizzard Battle.net software and the Windows OS.

World of Warcraft

Follow these steps to install World of Warcraft on Steam Deck:

  1. Search for World of Warcraft in Battle.net launcher and install it.
  2. Ensure that it uses the default installation location. Selecting this option will allow a desktop shortcut to be added by the installation.
  3. Similar to how it would be done on a PC, World of Warcraft will be downloaded and installed.
  4. After installation, select Play to start your game and verify that it operates as planned. Verify everything, then end the game.

We would always utilize the Battle.net launcher to start World of Warcraft. The WoW.exe executable can be added to your Steam Library, but you will need to sign in with your Battle.net account.

According to our observations, the Battle.net launcher will only come up and automatically log you into World of Warcraft once every fresh boot. Any subsequent tries will either start unsuccessfully or without your Battle.net login information. Restarting your device is the only fix we have identified so far.

Steam Deck is based on Linux operating system and hence, is compatible with a lot of desktop games including the ones on battle.net. You might have to do a little workaround and get some third-party launchers but they will work nonetheless. Adding Blizzard games to your Steam library means you’ll now have access to more games.