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Needs test ProtonDB Gold

Street Fighter IV

Proton (Windows) Fighting 2009 other appid 21660 ⚙ GE-Proton
Does it run on your Deck?

About

Street Fighter IV is a 2D fighting game developed by Capcom and Dimps, marking the mainline series' return after a long hiatus. It renders fighters with 3D models while keeping the traditional 2D plane and competitive mechanics, and introduced systems like Focus Attacks and Ultra Combos. The game was a critical and commercial success, earning universal acclaim and revitalizing the fighting-game genre. This original Games for Windows LIVE PC edition was delisted from Steam in 2021 due to its outdated GFWL backend and has not returned to sale.

Screenshots

Official store screenshots from Steam — deckport links them, never rehosts. Hover to pause; click to preview.

Identity

DeveloperCapcom, Dimps
PublisherCapcom
Released2009
GenreFighting
ModesSingle-player, local versus, online multiplayer
Engineother
TypeProton (Windows)
Steam appid21660

Launch

Binary
StreetFighterIV.exe
Needs files
none beyond the binary

Proton

Version
GE-Proton
Winetricks
ProtonDB
ProtonDB Gold runs perfectly after tweaks

⚙ Setup notes

Title: Delisted Steam game (appid 21660) — the original Games for Windows LIVE (GFWL) edition, removed from sale. The later Ultra Street Fighter IV (appid 45760) is a separate title.

Proton: Use GE-Proton: it bundles the GFWL components and handles this title far better than vanilla Proton/Experimental (older vanilla Proton has been reported black-screening at the GFWL launcher). ProtonDB's current aggregate tier is gold (some recent reports trend platinum, but gold is the honest baseline). Main binary is StreetFighterIV.exe.

GFWL: At launch the GFWL overlay will try to connect and fail. Create a LOCAL profile (offline sign-in) or, if it demands a serial key, dismiss the prompt with Escape to reach the game — single-player works fully offline. A more permanent community fix is to neutralize the bundled GFWL DLL with a no-op stub so the overlay never blocks startup.

Install: No download links here; supply your own copy.

The one thing to know

Supply your own copy. deckport links nothing.

DRM: Delisted GFWL edition (appid 21660). ProtonDB gold, community reports it running on Linux/Proton.

Proton: Use GE-Proton — vanilla Proton/Experimental can choke on the GFWL sign-in.

GFWL: Needs the offline-profile / Escape-past-key-prompt workaround for single player. Online ranked matchmaking is long dead, so treat this as a local/offline + couch-versus title.

Controller: Works out of the box (built for gamepads); if the in-game pad mapping is awkward, apply a Steam Input layout.

Status: Binary StreetFighterIV.exe not Deck-confirmed in this exact recipe — needs a hands-on test.

Community guides

Write-ups and threads from people who got this (or a similar) game running. deckport links to them — it doesn't reproduce them.

Get the artwork

deckport never hosts game images. Open this game on SteamGridDB, pick the cover / hero / logo / icon you like, and drop them into the game folder under .deckport-art/ before you push it to the Deck. The importer files them under the right names automatically.

Run it on your Deck

Two files: the one-time importer (deckport.py) in your Deck's home folder, and this game's install helper. Copy the game into ~/Games and run the helper with Steam closed — it writes the recipe (binary, launch options, Proton version) and registers the shortcut with artwork.