Decky plugin Unifideck now has Xbox Game Pass support, allowing us to easily download and play our games from the Game Pass subscription on Steam Deck.
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There are many different ways to play games on the Steam Deck that aren’t directly on Steam. There are third-party launchers we can install, and even a script that allows us to install all of them and automatically have them set up. However, if you have the Decky Plugin Framework, one of the more popular ways to do it is with Unifideck. The plugin allows us to recognize, set up, and install games from a multitude of other storefronts. It even adds these games directly in its own tab as non-Steam games, along with automatically downloaded artwork. And now, it can officially recognize Xbox Game Pass games and download them for us to play.
If you don’t have Decky Plugins set up, you can follow our guide to see how to get it set up and some recommended plugins.It’s also important to know that this plug-in was created with AI assistance. However, the creator of Unifideck is an IT Implementation Engineer, so they do have experience programming.
Created by mubaraknumann with AI assistance, Unifideck just received an update to allow us to download and use Xbox PC games on the Steam Deck. This is using the Xodus project, which was started by imLinguin and Vidi0. However, we’ve started to see implementations of it where Xbox games from Game Pass subscriptions can be downloaded, and that’s what we see here.
Mubaraknumann developed his own Xodus Runtime and Backend that allows us to use our existing Microsoft login to check which Game Pass subscription we have and sync our library so we can download these games. And because the Xodus components are separate, they can be updated with more compatibility for more games without the need for us to reinstall the plugin.
Before this update, we were able to log into our Microsoft account to play Game Pass games via the Cloud, but with the way this new update is structured, there’s no need to log in again. There’s even a fallback for those who don’t have access to Xbox Cloud streaming in their country, which is something I encountered. So, even if you can’t use cloud streaming, you will still be able to access your games to download. If you do have access to cloud streaming, you will have the option to either stream or download the game when you try playing it.
Not every game is immediately going to work with Xodus, and I did find a few that won’t work at all right now, but the majority of games will, and they run pretty decently. It appears under the Microsoft tab of your non-Steam games and allows us to download all the games that appear after syncing the library. It does need to check our license to download, but after that, it should be all good to go. Luckily, mubaraknumann is focused on making it as good as possible. They even got classic Xbox games working as I was testing the new update after I reported them not working, which means I can finally play Crimson Skies on the go.
It’s pretty great to have another easy way to play our Game Pass games, and with Unifideck, it works quite well. I was surprised how easy it was to set up once I was logged into my Microsoft account, and every game just appeared there without issue. I would love to see some icon or badge for games confirmed not to be working yet, or for games that are pre-orders and can’t be downloaded yet, but I think it’s great that we have such easy access to our Game Pass games.
On top of that, the update does have some UI updates, achievement popups for Epic Games, GOG, and Xbox, a version picker for Battle.net games was added, cloud saves for Linux GOG games now work, and Steam review scores and tags have been added to game pages. There were also some great new fixes, making this a worthwhile update that only adds to what is already a fantastic way to play third-party games.
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