I'm Stevie Bonifield, a freelance tech journalist covering gaming, Linux, Apple, and everything in between. I've written for PC Gamer, Tom's Guide, XDA, and Laptop Mag. When I'm not writing, you can find me playing Elden Ring and building way too many custom keyboards.
Whether you're new to Steam Deck or still thinking about buying one, you might be wondering if you can play non-Steam games on the Steam Deck or SteamOS. You can, and one free app is the key. It's not pre-installed on the Steam Deck, but installing and setting it up takes only a few minutes.
Here's how I installed the Heroic Games launcher on SteamOS to play games from Epic Games, GOG, and Amazon Gaming.
One of the slight downsides to the Steam Deck, and Valve's Linux-based SteamOS operating system, is that you can't download most other game stores or launchers. That's not because Valve prohibits it, but rather due to a lack of app compatibility on Linux. For instance, there's no Epic Games app for Linux at the time of writing.
Luckily, there's a free, open-source alternative: the Heroic Games launcher. This app allows you to connect your accounts from Epic Games, GOG, and Amazon Gaming so you can access your games from those platforms without their individual apps. It also allows you to conveniently collect all your games from those platforms in one place (your library will automatically update when you get new games on connected accounts, too).
Installing Heroic Games is fairly straightforward and only takes a handful of steps:
Exit Steam's Big Picture Mode by selecting the menu button, then choose Power.
Select the drop-down arrow next to the Install button. You should see the Flathub install code for the Heroic Games launcher.
Copy the code, but don't close your browser yet.
Open the Konsole app (also called the terminal).
Paste the Heroic Games install code from Flathub into the terminal using Control + Shift + V and press Enter.
Return to the Flathub page in your browser and copy the app launch command (flatpak run com.heroicgameslauncher.hgl).
Paste the launch command into the Konsole app to launch Heroic Games or find the app in your Steam Deck's app menu.
Installing from Flathub is the easiest method, but you can also install from an AppImage or RPMthrough the Heroic Games website if you prefer or if the Flathub method doesn't work for you.
Once you have Heroic Games installed, the next step is to connect your Epic Games, GOG, and Amazon Gaming accounts. You should see a prompt to connect your accounts when you open Heroic Games, but if you don't, just select the Log In tab to get started.
After you connect an account, all of your games from that account should show up in your Heroic Games library. Keep in mind, this also includes games that might not run on Linux, like Fortnite and other competitive multiplayer games with kernel-level anti-cheat. Heroic Games will usually warn you about potential issues when you try to install an incompatible game.
I've been using Heroic Games to play my games from Epic, GOG, and Amazon on Linux for months now and have had a great experience so far. Just like Steam, it utilizes a compatibility layer that automatically runs when you launch games that lack native Linux compatibility. That means you can play most Windows games even if they aren't designed to run on the Steam Deck or Linux.
It's also really convenient to have all my non-Steam games in one place. Heroic Games will automatically add new games to your library, too. So, if you grab a free game off of Epic or Prime Gaming, it should automatically show up in your Epic Games library shortly after.
The only downside I've noticed is cloud saves. While the Heroic Games app itself supports cloud saves, support is hit or miss from one game or developer to another. For instance, when I tried to turn on cloud saves for Hypnospace Outlaw, I got the following error message:
"Linux native games do not support GOG's Cloud Saves feature. Use the Windows version instead. This game does not support Cloud Saves."
I've never had an issue running my games on Heroic Games. It's just worth noting that you'll need to manually back up your saves for some games when cloud saves aren't an option. It's not a deal-breaker for me, though, since without Heroic Games I wouldn't be able to play any of my non-Steam games on SteamOS or Linux.
Heroic Games: The free, open-source key to expanding your game library on SteamOS
Despite one minor quirk, Heroic Games is one of my must-have apps on Steam Deck, SteamOS, and Linux in general. It allows you to keep snagging those free games on Epic Games and Prime Gaming and continue to access your existing library of non-Steam games even when you're not playing on Windows. Plus, it's free, so why not give it a try?
