About 4 years ago, I first introduced SteamDeckHQ, an official press outlet that focuses on Steam Deck performance testing and recommended settings, to this Subreddit. Since then, it has taken off and grown more than I could have ever expected. It's all thanks to our incredible community and readers for making it happen.

Today, we are pushing forward and have completely redesigned the website from the ground up. Everything has been retouched to make it look better, have cleaner navigation, and support some big new features like accounts, library/wishlist syncing with our reviews, badges, and more.

Here's an overview of everything that has changed:

• Complete redesign: homepage, header, navigation, footer, cards, typography, and mobile layouts.
• Homepage toggle between featured stories and a newest-first article strip, with the preference saved.
• Light and dark modes that follow the device setting or remember a manual choice.
• Rebuilt reviews with clearer scores, verdicts, compatibility badges, settings, battery information, galleries, and buy links.
• Review search, sorting, and filters for device, genre, compatibility, and ratings.
• Expanded Nintendo and hardware sections, plus Steam Machine and future Steam Frame areas.
• Steam account linking and a personal library matched to SDHQ reviews.
• Playtime, Steam Deck hours, and achievement progress on relevant reviews.
• Saved wishlist with supported public Steam wishlist importing.
• Personal game recommendations based on library and playing habits.
• Live deal prices, discounts on game cards, wishlist deals, and personalised suggestions.
• Improved community voting and results.
• Badges covering participation, library activity, devices, and Steam milestones.
• Rebuilt account pages, profile editing, Steam/Patreon linking, sign-in, and password recovery.
• Dedicated Patreon membership page and paid-member ad-free handling.
• Rebuilt About, team, author, Work With Us, search, and error pages.

We have a lot of plans for the future, so stay tuned as we expand the site with more features and better ways to find out which games run well on the Steam Deck.

https://steamdeckhq.com/

Minecraft Dungeons 2 currently doesn't support the Steam Deck, but in an official reply on the Minecraft Feedback website, the development team is confirmed to be working on it.

A new update for EmuDeck was just released with some nice changes, including more Steam Machine support, RetroAchievements for Dolphin, resolution selectors for PPSSPP and Vita3K, and a bunch of fixes.

Hey everyone! So, we at SteamDeckHQ had the pleasure of checking out two of JSAUX's new faceplates, which just went on sale today. I loved them both for different reasons, but the E-Ink panel won me over with how cool it looks to show screenshots in the E-Ink style.

Hey everyone! So, we reviewed Silent Hill: Townfall, which I fell in love with. It's a fantastic game, but it is a little rough on the Steam Deck. It can hit 30 FPS if we walk around slowly, but if we start to run around, it can drop. I would consider it playable in most areas, but there are enough drops and stutters to be noticeable. If the Deck is the only way you can play it, it could be enjoyable, just be prepared.

Last week, Rise of the Ronin was somehow rated Steam Deck Playable, and while I do like the game, there's no way I could consider it playable. It does hit 30 FPS more often than it did at launch, but there are constant drops below 30 when running around and in cutscenes. And no, lossless scaling/MAKO does not make the experience better. It may appear smoother at times, but the stutters and drops will be felt hard.

The Steam Frame is officially here! It's starting at $1,059 and won't be coming with a power supply.

As the name suggests, the upcoming Planet Zoo 2 has been Steam Deck Verified a month ahead of its launch.

Announced today, Ubisoft is starting to remove their Ubisoft Connect Launcher from their Steam releases. Not only does this get rid of their third-party launcher, but it should make playing their games on the Steam Deck easier and make offline work better.

I tested it with the one game they are supporting currently, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and it works like a charm. Logged me in automatically, and offline worked without issue. Hopefully, this will come to more games soon!

There was a huge new update to Final Fantasy 14 today, adding in the Beastmaster class and more, so we went ahead and created an all-in-one guide for Final Fantasy 14 on the Steam Deck. It covers installation, plugins, recommended settings, controller scheme changes, and HUD modification to make the MMO as enjoyable as possible on the go.

Recently, Final Fantasy 16 got Steam Deck Verified, so I went ahead and tested it to see if it was actually a "great experience" on the Deck. However, it really isn't. Constant drops below 30 FPS in cutscenes and running around the world and poor visual quality makes the experience one I don't recommend playing on the go.

Hey everyone! So, we reviewed Onimusha: Way of the Sword, and it further proves how optimized the RE Engine is for the Deck. It is best at the default settings, since running through Eastern Kyoto results in some high CPU usage that can make the game stutter and drain lots of battery. However, it does stick to 30 FPS where it needs to and looks quite decent on the small screen.

We are SteamDeckHQ, so our focus is on how it performs on the Steam Deck, but Re:Blue can be played on any modern PC.

Today, an unofficial native PC port called Re:Blue was released, giving us a chance to play the Xbox 360 exclusive Blue Dragon on modern hardware with enhancements like higher framerate support, mod support, graphical options, and more, and it runs decently on the Steam Deck.

It will hit 30 FPS and drain around 14W - 16W of battery (so about 3-3.5 hours of battery life). It does have an issue where the game won't run at framerates higher than 30, and trying to set it higher will make the device try to push more frames and drain more battery. However, the game's framerate doesn't change, so it's better to set a 30 FPS cap for right now.

You will need legally dumped copies of your own version of Blue Dragon, but it works well, supports the DLC, and is just a treat to be able to play this game on the Deck.

https://github.com/zolaware/reblue

Earlier today at the Future Games Show, Wolcen 2 was announced, and we got confirmation from the developer/publisher that the game will support the Steam Deck.

Ahead of its release, we reviewed Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy and got some mixed results.

It runs at 30 FPS most of the time, but CPU usage can be high and cause some stutters here and there. It isn't the end of the world, and it will stick to 30 FPS most of the time, but it does pop up often enough and will bring the battery drain up.

However, I can't recommend it just yet because it has a major crashing issue. At the beginning of Chapter 9, the game will completely freeze. I believe this is due to high CPU and GPU usage, and it's definitely a game issue (the crash also occurs on the Steam Machine). So, until that is fixed, I would avoid playing on the Deck.

The crash on Steam Deck when opening the Virtual Keyboard in Skyrim Special Edition has been fixed, so as far as I am aware, it should be perfectly playable on the Steam Deck now.

Here's the changelog from today's update:

Added and Updated Features

Game

• Increased mod storage to 15 GB for both PlayStation 5 and Xbox.

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• Added localized strings fixes for UI and platform terminology.
• A Creation’s Details page now includes instructions on how to report abusive or problematic mods.
• Added bundling of Creations in the Skyrim Creations Menu to bring it to parity with Fallout and Starfield.
• Changed storefront UI to support Creations box art at 3640 x 900 and 900 x 506 to be consistent with Starfield and Fallout 4. Older image sizes will still be supported and do not require immediate resubmission.
• Added support to sort Creation categories by "Most Popular".
• Creations flagged as WIP can now be viewed when bookmarked.

Creation Kit

• Added Localization export support.
• Updated "Search and Replace" to align with Starfield, adding buttons for "Select Form in Object Window" and "Open Form Editor".
• Creation Kit will now allow multiple master loads by default. This can be configured as normal.
• Skyrim Creations released through the Verified Creators program will have the option to be Achievement-Friendly (Xbox) and Trophy-Friendly (PlayStation). This means that certain Creations will no longer block achievements, but it requires starting a new game for this functionality to work on updated Creations.
• Bink files can now be added to Creation uploads via an Extra Files browser.
• Expanding beyond scripts, archives are now supported on PlayStation. New file types are available (.nif, .dds, .bink, .wav, and .fuz (with embedded .wav)) for PlayStation Creations.

Crashes

Game

• Fixed a crash when the player opens the Virtual Keyboard on a Steam Deck device.
• Fixed a crash when the player ‘selects’ an empty search result in the Creations menu.
• Fixed a crash when the player transforms into a new race.

Creation Kit

• Fixed a crash when the player closes the dialogue for a Sound Descriptor.
• Fixed a crash when analyzing loot in a new encounter zone.
• Fixed a crash when clicking the Make Use Info button on some menus.
• Fixed a crash that can occur when reloading a mod without an associated Masterfile.

Bug Fixes

Game

• Free Creations from Verified Creators now correctly appear in the Verified Creators category within the store.
• Exiting out of Search when viewing a specific Creation now properly returns the player to the Details page of that Creation.
• Fixed an issue where installed Creations would sometimes display the incorrect version number while on the pause menu.
• Creations titles should now display with fewer misformatted characters.
• Resolved an issue where the Creations store would not always update visual pricing when Creations were placed on sale when a player had not changed menus.
• Resolved an issue where Anniversary Edition Creations failed to auto-download on PlayStation 5.
• Search strings will no longer clip through text when searching for Creations,
• The Verified Creator category should now correctly sort by latest and not alphabetical order.
• Enabling an item in Load Order should now more consistently stick when selected.
• Deleting all Creations now only clears mods downloaded from the Store and not those loaded via other means.
• Uploading or restoring a Load Order containing a mod or Creation no longer available on the Marketplace should no longer fail.
• Uploading or restoring a Load Order containing many mods should no longer fail.
• The Creations store should now load more efficiently.

Creation Kit

• Creation Kit now forces consistent capitalization of platform-specific .bsa binaries to avoid runtime errors.
• Archiving new forms in a plugin which relies on pre-existing assets will no longer cause the pre-existing form to duplicate within the plugin.
• Fixed an issue where Creation submission can improperly tag a file as a Masterfile causing infinite data reload.
• Cell forms should now populate correctly across all tabs when accessed via the Cell View window.
• Altered forms will no longer count as new forms when creating a plugin.
• Using the Create Archives or Upload process should more consistently apply correct compression to meshes/miscellaneous archives.
• Browsing ids in the World Spaces window should no longer alter the forms.
• Resolved error message pop-up when attempting to open the Creation Kit while Bethesda.net services were offline.

Miscellaneous

• Updated the game credits.

We got confirmation from the team that PAYDAY: Aces High is currently being optimized for the Steam Frame!

After a few days of somehow being rated Steam Deck Verified, Crimson Desert has gone back to its Unsupported rating after the backlash. The game should never have gotten the green checkmark, but kudos to Valve for changing the rating back to Unsupported.

According to an Epic Staffer's response during an AMA on Discord, the Epic Games Store will be getting Linux support "soon", which could make it easier to play those weekly freebies on the Steam Deck. It could also pave the way for Linux support for games like Fortnite, but that's not a guarantee and could just be wishful thinking.

Hello everyone! So, Crimson Desert got Steam Deck Verified, but it just goes to show how awful Valve's system can be. The game is in no condition to actually be rated Verified, as the lowest possible settings with FSR 3.1 on Ultra Performance still drop below 30 FPS when just running around or fighting enemies.

Using our framerate analysis tool, we can see how all over the place the framerate is, with tons of stutters that make it difficult to actually enjoy the game. I will include photos of our analysis tool in the comments below with both the framerate/system stats and framerate distribution.

Either way, don't buy this game to play on Steam Deck.