Final Fantasy XIV should once again be playable on the Steam Deck. Back in March, the popular MMO would fail to launch on Valve’s handheld. But now, a new update for the Proton experimental branch addresses this problem. It took a while, though, with the game being unplayable for nearly two months.
Final Fantasy XIV is undoubtedly a popular game, so much so that sales of the game had to be halted at one point. The fact it was unplayable for any amount of time certainly stings. The Steam Deck is also an excellent method of playing the game, especially when doing dailies. Luckily, the problem seems to be fixed, even if the way it happened was a bit confusing.
Final Fantasy XIV is finally fixed on Steam Deck
Interestingly, the issue didn’t lie within the game itself, but with its launcher. For some reason, whenever you’d launch the game, it would simply stay on the logo. This would only occur with the Steam version of the game and was thought to be an issue with Square Enix accounts needing to link with Steam accounts. However, the new launcher that accompanied a previous update did not play nice with the Steam Deck and ultimately led to the game being unplayable for two months. That’s a long time, especially if you’d wanted to keep up with the grind.
But with Proton’s 7.0.2 test update, Final Fantasy XIV is finally playable on the Steam Deck. It should roll out as part of a regular update soon as well. And it isn’t just Final Fantasy XIV it fixes. In fact, there are actually quite a few. Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, Star Wars Episode I Racer, and Resident Evil Revelations 2 are just a few that have received fixes.
Valve has been on the ball when it comes to routinely updating the Steam Deck with new features. The most recent update included per-game performance profiles and keyboard additions. With more and more titles becoming compatible with the Steam Deck, like Final Fantasy XIV, the handheld is shaping up quite nicely.
