Update 01/10 – Mojang has now pushed an update for Minecraft Dungeons II on Steam to make the game playable on Steam Deck, SteamOS and other Linux systems.
They note that “Some issues may occur such as missing on-screen keyboard functionality, but more improvements will be coming in a future update to bring full Steam Deck verification.”
Testing this briefly in SteamOS on my PC, it now works great, though Mojang has seemingly just removed the ability to link to a Microsoft account, which provides cross-platform progression, account-based rewards and can sync extra content. It’s not strictly required for online play or cross-platform co-op.
The original story follows.
Minecraft Dungeons II released yesterday, and it’s a rather enjoyable open world expansion of the family-friendly action RPG. Enjoyable, that is, unless you had hoped to play the game on Steam Deck or any of the gaming-oriented Linux distros out there.
“We’ve seen your feedback about Steam Deck support for Minecraft Dungeons II,” Mojang writes on their feedback site. “The team is working on it and we hope to have more to share soon. Thanks for your patience, and keep the feedback coming.”
While the first game works perfectly fine on Steam Deck and Linux, getting a Platinum rating on ProtonDB despite being officially unsupported, the sequel stumbles at the first hurdle. Trying to load the game on SteamOS presents a warning to install a missing online component, the game running through the Proton translation layer, but trying to tap into Windows-specific features and apps for the Xbox account support. It’s quite strange when recent Xbox games like Forza Horizon 6 and Halo: Campaign Evolved have released with Steam Deck support.
This, alongside complaints over a lack of WASD support, and having a split between online and offline game saves, has led to the game having a ‘Mixed’ rating on Steam. That’s enough to get a developer and publisher to sit up and take notice.
To be clear, the game does not require that you log into a Microsoft account in order to play, but by linking more closely with the Xbox APIs built into Windows, it’s problematic for Linux gamers.
But, ever-enterprising Linux gamers quickly concocted workarounds and solutions to get the game running. These range from using ‘experimental’ versions of Proton to using the Xodus project, which has been reverse engineering the Xbox infrastructure to work with Linux, and other bespoke workarounds and .DLL replacements.
For the vast majority of gamers, this won’t even register as an issue. Minecraft Dungeons 2 is out across Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch & Switch 2 and (Windows) PC. It’s fun, and a good expansion over the original with a connected open world instead of levels, deeper character build customisation, and a trip to The Sift as a brand new Minecraft location.
In our review, Dom said, “Minecraft Dungeons II is a perfectly tuned sequel, taking everything that the first game got right, and expanding, revising and improving on it.”
Source: Minecraft Feedback