Sony’s new strategy is to bring the games they have exclusive for PS5 and PS4 to PC. This idea sounds positive, but complaints about importing games from the company’s consoles to PCs are mounting. Several users now point out that the game Horizon Zero Dawn does not work on the Steam Deck.
The Horizon Zero Dawn game was released in August 2020 exclusively for the PS4. Sony has decided to bring the game to PC, along with other important titles from the company. It seems that this strategy is not appreciated, because the games would not optimize properly.
Horizon Zero Dawn not working on Valve’s console
If you don’t know the game, it’s a third person action exploration game based on an apocalyptic future. Humanity has undergone a major technological regression that has brought them back to the stone age and, in addition, they are divided into tribes. Aloy, who is the protagonist, is a skilled hunter who seeks to unravel the past, while surviving highly intelligent robotic creatures with lots of bad blood.
He has a big problem which can be seen in the minimum requirements of the game. It takes a NVIDIA GTX 780 or Well AMD Radeon R9 290, to be able to play it in 1080p with graphic adjustments. Some requirements that unable to play at Horizon Zero Dawn on the Steam Deck.
Valve’s console is based on a Partially Customized AMD Ryzen APU. The main problem is that the graphics it includes are not very powerful, so it does not reach what is needed to run the game at 1080p. According to the specifications of the official website of the steam bridge
As we can see, the difference is, more or less, three times. This makes the the game cannot be launched on this console. Something that, by the way, will happen with many other games due to the low power of the Valve console. It is also true that portable consoles, such as the Nintendo Switch, are very limited, as they cannot have powerful processors.
Playing it at 540p doesn’t seem like a solution.
Several users pointed out that they were able to run Horizon Zero Dawn on the Steam Deck. The problem is that for this they had to reduce the resolution to the beast. They had to switch to 540p resolution, which is half the resolution of 1080p. This tweak necessitated other significant graphical tweaks.
There is not much more to do in this case, since the AMD Ryzen APU gives for what it gives. It’s also true that the Steam Deck might not be meant to run such powerful games. From our point of view, you have to be much more conservative, opt for light games and indie titles, above all.
What do you think about Valve’s Steam Deck not being able to run the Horizon Zero Dawn game?