Will Nightingale run on Steam Deck?

Nightingale, Inflexion Games’ Victorian inspired gaslamp fantasy survival game, is set to enter early access on February 20. Despite the fact that it is widely advertised as a PC exclusive, there are those with Steam Decks in their possession who are asking the question: will Nightingale be playable on the handheld platform?

Well yes, theoretically, although you’re likely to run into some trouble if you try. 

Inflexion were very candid about this in their pre-launch update post, stating that while people will be able to launch the game on Steam Deck, they’ll likely have issues with navigating the world due to the game’s current lack of full controller support. They also state that they will not be providing customer support for those who play on the handheld due to it being an unofficial platform. 

They do mention that if you have a Steam Deck, you’re welcome to try and let them know of any issues you run into, while asking that players remember to report that they’re playing on Steam Deck so that issues can be recreated internally. 

Is Nightingale playable on Steam Deck?

In short, no one knows how well Nightingale will run on Steam Deck, or even if it will be rendered completely unplayable by the lack of full controller support. We’ll have to wait for players to take the plunge and provide feedback to the community before we can truly judge the playability of the game on the handheld. 

If you have a Steam Deck and you were planning to get the game anyway, why not give it a try? At worst you’ll still have Nightingale in your Library to play on PC and at best, you’ll be able to travel in real life while traveling the Realms in game. It’s worth a shot.