There is bad news for anyone hoping to play Assassin’s Creed Shadows on the Steam Deck as the technology director for the game confirms that it won’t be compatible, at least not on release day.
While the Steam Deck is still the best handheld gaming PC for most, it’s aging hardware and limited power is starting to become an issue for anyone hoping to play the latest triple-A games. The Assassin’s Creed Shadows system requirements cover everything up to ultra ray tracing, and Ubisoft believes there is no room for Steam Deck compatibility within them.
In a specific tech Q&A held a few weeks ago, one of the questions asked was “will the game be Steam Deck certified at launch”. Technology director Pierre F came back with a fairly straight, albeit disappointing answer, “at launch, the game will not be compatible with Steam Deck, due to the fact it is below our minimum specs for PC.”
One glimmer of hope is the opening of Pierre’s response “at launch,” which suggests it may be a goal to eventually get it working on the Steam Deck, but it won’t be ready for day one.
I have high hopes for its compatibility with the MSI Claw 8 AI+, however, as the game is optimized for Intel Core Ultra technology, and this handheld is powered by an Intel Core Ultra 7 285V.
Other handhelds, such as the Ayaneo 3 and Asus ROG Ally X, should also have enough power to tackle Assassin’s Creed Shadows at low settings at the very least, leaving the Steam Deck as a bit of an outlier.
If you feel up to more disappointment, you can check out these Assassin’s Creed Shadow PC peripherals, where all the gear looks fantastic, but has very little going for it in the way of features.
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