Forza Horizon 6 is out, Valve update Proton Hotfix for Linux – initial thoughts
Forza Horizon 6 is out, Valve update Proton Hotfix for Linux – initial thoughts
Publish Date: 2026-05-19 06:36:00
Source Domain: www.gamingonlinux.com
Forza Horizon 6 has officially launched from Playground Games and Xbox Game Studios, with Valve getting Proton updated ready for it on Linux / SteamOS. Note: personal purchase, no one replied to GamingOnLinux for a code, so big thanks to all our supporters.
Only just recently on GamingOnLinux I wrote about Proton needing some “horrible” workarounds to get the game working properly on Linux, and it seems at least some of those needed changes have arrived. Valve silently updated Proton Hotfix, and they’ve now also set it as the default for Forza Horizon 6 across all Linux platforms including SteamOS / Steam Deck.
There’s nearly 100 comments on the Proton GitHub report, with lots of Linux gamers reporting various issues with the game. The issues differ between NVIDIA and AMD GPUs, with a needed driver update upcoming for NVIDIA users (no ETA as to when).
Keen to see what the experience was like on my Desktop Fedora KDE AMD system (Ryzen 5800x / Radeon 6800 XT – Mesa 26.0.6), I picked up a copy to have a blast through and report for you. This also gives my shiny new Steam Controller an extra workout. I’m not using an extras at all here, no added launch options.
First thing to note – it does require an Xbox account. So if you were hoping to be able to play fully offline, it appears that’s not possible. Even trying to go into the settings screen on the main menu, it bugs you to force you to login to an Xbox account. Thankfully, there were no issues there scanning the code on my phone and linking accounts on both Desktop and Steam Deck, so at least that was smooth.
After that, doing a few runs of the benchmark mode. Here’s the results for my system on the High preset:
Pictured – Forza Horizon 6 on Fedora KDE
For a brand new AAA game, that needs a special version of Proton – that seems quite reasonable on my system for the initial release.
Testing it also on the Steam Deck OLED (SteamOS 3.8 Beta), here’s a benchmark of how it runs there too on the Low preset:
