From Software is notorious for creating the souls-like genre with Dark Souls and solidifying it with Elden Ring, but they have made other iconic series with it. One of them is getting a brand new entry soon and it looks like it will be amazing. Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon is the next entry in the mech-combat series and I am blown away by how it looks, as well as just personally excited to see the next entry into the series.
Recently, we had a publisher working on the game make a statement about how it will be fully supported on the Steam Deck, which makes us even more excited, but with how early it is, we have no idea what this means exactly. This could mean it’ll run at 30 FPS or even just that it will be technically playable due to its controller support and showing the correct controller icons.
While I personally believe it’s the former rather than the latter, there have been no reports on how exactly it will run, so with the release coming in 11 days, I wanted to take time to look at how it may run on the Steam Deck when it finally arrives. So let’s jump into it and see how it could run and if you might actually be able to play it on-the-go.
Will Armored Core 6 Run on the Steam Deck?
For evaluating how it could run, I look at 3 different factors: Developer Track Record, Minimum Ppecs/Engine, and Confirmed Graphical Options. By evaluating these, and checking out similar games to it, I can take an educated guess on how the game may run on the Deck.
Before I begin, this performance theorizing is purely an opinion and not indicative of the final release. We will not officially know performance until the game is released and in our hands, but until then, here is what we can gather from what we have in front of us:
The Minimum Specs
First, let’s look at the minimum specs and how a similar spec’d game will run. According to the minimum specs, Armored Core 6 will need at least a Ryzen 5 2600 CPU, a Nvidia GTX 1650 or AMD RX 480 GPU, 12gb of RAM, and DirectX 12.
Compared to other games, this is a bit on the high end. Games that have a minimum GPU of 1050-TI, which is not as powerful as the 1650, and still need a decent amount of compromises to run well at a solid 30 FPS. This would usually make me a little nervous, but this is From Software we are talking about. I could compare and bring in a game with similar specs to compare, but the closest game I could find, which also uses the same engine that Armored Core 6 will be using, is Elden Ring.
So, before I go into how Elden Ring performs on the Steam Deck, let's take a quick look at From Software's past.
From Software's History - PC Ports and Future Patches
When it comes to From Software, there is no lack of confidence as to how good a game they release will be, but when it comes to PC ports, that's another story. There is a stigma associated with them ever since the first Dark Souls 1 port and we have seen some big bugs and poor performance over games they have released, at least initially.
When Elden Ring released, the game had tons of bugs and performance issues with some calling it the worst PC port of all time. Thankfully, From Software worked hard to fix the game and they did it quite well. With the turnaround, I am very pleased to say that not only does Elden Ring run well on PC and has become a must-have game. To compare, let's take a look at two recent From Software releases: Elden Ring and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Starting with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, the game runs fantastic on the Steam Deck. From our full review of the game, it can run at 40 FPS with a mix of high and low settings, as well as 30 FPS stable with high settings. This isn't the best game to compare as it did come out 4 years ago and its minimum spec requirements are less than Armored Core 6, but I wanted to bring it up anyways to show more performance of the engine.
Elden Ring
Now we have Elden Ring, which is a fantastic comparison to make for Armored Core 6. Not only is it using the same engine, but its from the same developers and has similar, if not slightly higher, minimum spec requirements. Both games have the same exact DirectX and RAM requirements, but Elden Ring has a higher GPU requirement and a lower CPU one. So comparing the two, I feel we can get a decent assessment on what to expect with Fires of Rubicon.
Per our full review, Elden Ring can run tremendously at 30 FPS with a mix of settings while sticking to 13W - 16W battery drain. For a demanding open-world game, I would consider this to be pretty amazing, especially with a higher GPU requirement. This is saying a lot too considering Elden Ring has no upscaling methods in there like FSR or XeSS which, if implemented, could more than likely have improved performance even further.
Armored Core is very fast-paced game compared to Elden Ring, but I think looking more at this release in terms of how From Software can optimize their game with their engine without the need for upscalers is telling. Yes, the game could initially launch with bugs and performance issues, but giving From Software some time to patch and fix could make this a well-optimized experience.
Confirmed Graphical Options
For Armored Core 6, there haven't been much talk about any confirmed graphical options, but since it will be using the same engine as Elden Ring and Sekiro, and their options are relatively the same, I can infer that this release will have a similar options. These include shadow, texture, volumetrics, shader, global illumination, SSAO, effects, and more.
So, Will Armored Core 6 Run on the Steam Deck?
With all of the information, From Software's history, and looking at their engine, I think it is safe to say that Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon will run on the Steam Deck. I do expect launch performance to have some bugs due to From Software's track record on PC ports, but I also expect it to be cleaned up quite soon after release.
After it is cleaned up, I have a feeling running it at 30 FPS will be no problem, but will need medium to low graphics due to how fast-paced the game is. I believe 40 will be possible too, but will require low settings, a lower resolution with SteamOS FSR, and it will have higher battery drain. But I do believe this will be possible.
Of course, as I mentioned before, this is all speculative and the end product could be wildly different, but if you are looking for an educated gut feeling about how it will run to give some confidence, I would say that you will be able to play it enjoyably on the Steam Deck.
You can pre-order Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon now on Steam for $60 and it will release on August 25th.
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The thing about FromSoft is that their development engine, nicknamed Dantelion by the community, tends to undergo extreme modifications to suit a game’s needs: they have never released a PC game on this branch of the engine before. Every Soulsborne game except for Dark Souls 2 (and only SOME elements of Demon’s Souls PS5) has used a branch of the engine dating back to a 2006 RPG called Enchanted Arms that’s just slowly been upgraded since then. Armored Core has always gotten the long end of the FromSoft engine stick due to their games having much harsher requirements on what the engine needs to be capable of.