February 2025 Steam Deck is about to celebrate its third birthday. While many games still run like a dream on a portable computer, it’s clear that as time goes on, more and more big new games are pushing this tiny computer to its limits. Maybe it’s time for an upgrade.
Let’s be clear: The steam deck is great. Valve’s affordable, portable handheld computer launched in 2022 has quickly inspired imitators while also making it easier than ever to play PC games old and new from your couch. I know a lot of people who didn’t play a lot of computer games before, but they now play a lot on their Steam Deck. This is not a debate. The Steam Deck was extremely popular and changed the video game industry. That said, by 2024, it feels like more and more of this year’s biggest games won’t run well, or at all, on the aging Steam Deck.
Recently published silent hill 2 Remastered – Very Good – Yes Currently marked as “unsupported” by Valve on the Steam Deck. While you can still install it and you’ll find you can play new horror games, you’ll have to turn down most settings and put up with some choppy performance in certain areas. It’s clear that this game is pushing the Steam Deck forward.
And it’s not alone. Based on Valve’s testing, here are the other games on the Steam Deck that are “unsupported” or “playable” (as opposed to “verified”):
- star warrior 2 – not supported
- Hellblade 2 – Not supported
- Dragon’s Dogma 2 – not supported
- Black Myth: Wukong – not supported
- Frostpunk 2 – not supported
- final fantasy 16 (PC port) – Not supported
- Hellraiser 2 – Playable
- Tekken 8 – Playable
- “WWE 2K24” – Playable
- suicide squad – Playable
- multiple confrontations – Playable
Some of these games are really difficult to run on the Steam Deck. star warrior 2For example, it’s technically still possible to install and play, but even with every setting turned down to the lowest option, Hard to reach 30 FPS. Senua’s Legend: Hellblade II, This is a very beautiful game that can only be Kind of like running on the Steam Deck After lowering the settings to the point where it looks terrible. And then you have something like a massive open world RPG Dragon’s Dogma 2It performs poorly on current consoles and, unsurprisingly, performs poorly on the Steam Deck.
Now, not all of the above games are completely unplayable. For example, through some adjustments, you can get Black Myth: Wukong It runs basically normally at a frame rate of about 30 frames. On the steam deck. The same reason Hellraiser 2. But one of the best qualities of the Steam Deck is that many of the games are “proven” and will run fine out of the box on Valve’s small PCs. Having to dig through multiple menus, adjust Steam Deck and game settings, and view recommendations online isn’t much fun, and I think for a lot of Steam Deck owners, they don’t want to mess with that just to play a new game.
The reality is that Steam Deck is getting old. It wasn’t the hottest or most powerful device when it launched in 2022, so it’s no surprise that more and more games are struggling to run on the device. Of course, there are plenty of games that run perfectly on the Steam Deck, so it’s still worth buying if you want to play indie games, older games, or a less demanding single-player experience.
But the days of being able to run “most games” on the Steam Deck (Valve’s early games using the device) are over. Now the question is: when will Valve release a more powerful version of the Steam Deck that can play these bigger games without draining the battery or lowering all settings?
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