Steam Deck plugin hits a milestone: Game Pass without streaming or Windows

Unifideck brings games from various storefronts together within the Steam interface. Version 0.8.0, released on November 9, introduces a particularly interesting addition that marks a major milestone for the Decky Loader plugin: Alongside the existing cloud gaming option, users can now download and run PC Game Pass games and purchased Xbox PC titles locally. According to the developer, achievements, cloud saves and offline play are also supported.

How the Game Pass integration works (with some limitations)

The technical foundation comes from the community projects Xodus and Nexus Launcher. Xodus handles Microsoft account sign-in, license verification and game downloads on Linux. Built on top of it, Nexus Launcher provides a game management interface and the runtime environment needed to run supported titles. These tools already made it possible to play Game Pass titles locally on the Steam Deck, as we've previously explained. Unifideck, however, aims to make the process more convenient by integrating everything directly into the existing game library. The feature can be enabled in the plugin settings, after which users sign in with their Microsoft account. This means users must also provide their login credentials. However, according to the developer, authentication tokens and session data are stored only locally on the device. 

It's important to emphasize that the feature is still experimental. Steam Deck HQ has already tested the update and praised the straightforward setup process. However, some games refused to launch during testing, so users shouldn't expect a fully functional Game Pass library just yet. And for anyone hoping this might finally make previously incompatible multiplayer games playable, there's some bad news: The plugin still doesn't solve the problem of anti-cheat systems that lack Linux support.