God of War Ragnarok May Not Work on Steam Deck, Thanks to PSN

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As I was writing my article announcing that God of War Ragnarok was coming to PC, the Steam page had not gone up yet. So, as soon as I was done, I went back and checked the page to see if it was up, and there it was! Unfortunately, as my eyes were scanning the page, I noticed a dreaded warning I was hoping wouldn't be there: The game will require linking a PSN account. And if this is similar to Ghost of Tsushima's warning for online multiplayer, we may not be able to play on the Steam Deck.

For some backstory, Ghost of Tsushima is technically playable on the Steam Deck. You can play the single-player with ease, and it's awesome, but the online multiplayer is inaccessible. This is because the PlayStation Network Account linking is required for the online portion, and it isn't compatible with non-Windows systems. So, with the game mentioning it will require linking to a PSN account, we may face the same outcome.

The one thing that gives me a slight hope is the absence of mentioning the PlayStation Overlay. One of the big new additions to Ghost of Tsushima was the overlay, and that could be what isn't working on Linux/SteamOS. If this is the case, then it appears that God of War Ragnarok will work on the Deck, but if it's something that is related to linking a PSN account completely, this could spell bad news for portable Linux play.

I will try to stay a little more optimistic and hope that God of War Ragnarok will be playable. It would be a shame to see the game, a completely offline single-player experience, be locked out of playing on the Deck due to needing to log into an account. This could be similar to what was going to happen with HELLDIVERS 2, which as just account migration, but until then, I will have some light optimism.

But I won't lie. I am still a bit worried.

God of War Ragnarok's Steam page is live now and can be wishlisted before its September 19th release.

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