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Introduction to Gaming on Bazzite

Paradigm Shift

Linux gaming being a viable competitor to Windows is a relatively new paradigm. Most Windows exclusive games can run on Bazzite using modern hardware. There are still some rough edges, but gaming on Linux does offer advantages on the appropriate hardware such as better frame-times than on Windows.

Steam Games

Steam is the recommended way to play PC games on Bazzite as it ships with a compatibility layer known as Proton, which is a fork of WINE and other various projects merged into a convenient runner built into Steam for Linux, that is intended for gaming developed by Valve. Most singleplayer PC games should be able to run without any tweaking necessary, but there are cases where a game purchased and installed through Steam will not run out of the box. Some newer online multiplayer games require deeper access to your computer hardware and Windows drivers to run their anti-cheat software which may not run on Bazzite meaning these games will be unplayable unless Windows is running.

Non-Steam Games

Bazzite can also run games off of Steam using Lutris, which is a frontend for running video games and other software through Proton/WINE. Faugus Launcher is an alternative to Lutris available in the Bazaar app store which may be favorable due to a simpler design than Lutris. Heroic Games Launcher is recommended over Lutris for games that were purchased from Epic Games Launcher, GOG, and Amazon Games Launcher.

Games installed from the Microsoft Store do not run unless you use a Xbox Cloud Gaming client like Greenlight which requires a Game Pass Ultimate subscription for most games. Fortnite can also be played via this method without a Game Pass subscription. There are also select Game Pass titles available on Battle.net which can be ran using Lutris.

Console emulators can be installed from Bazaar or through projects like Retrodeck or Emudeck (Available in the Bazzite Portal application).

Useful External Resources