In a recent turn of events, Ubisoft has announced that Assassin’s Creed Shadows will be playable on the Steam Deck when it launches next week. This comes as a surprise, as Ubisoft had previously stated in a Q&A that the game would not be supported on the Steam Deck at launch due to its specs being below the minimum PC requirements.

However, with just one week left before release, Ubisoft has now confirmed in a new X/Twitter post that its next Assassin’s Creed game will be playable on Valve’s handheld. Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the Japan-set entry in Ubisoft’s long-running series, will also be the first game the company is bringing to Steam on day one, and perhaps the first to receive that Verified badge.

They are still waiting for Valve’s stamp of approval

The note about “currently awaiting the level of classification from Valve” is important because Valve typically evaluates new and upcoming games based on Steam Deck’s compatibility classifications. This will determine whether the game receives a full Verified badge or is simply listed as Playable on Steam Deck. Valve marks games as Deck Verified only after testing them to ensure they have full controller support and run well on the handheld hardware.

• Verified: The game works great on Steam Deck, right out of the box.
• Playable: The game may require some manual tweaking by the user to play.
• Unsupported: The game is currently not functional on Steam Deck.
• Unknown: We haven’t checked this game for compatibility yet.

Currently, none of the Assassin’s Creed games available on Steam have the Verified badge, and they are all marked as Playable. If Assassin’s Creed Shadows manages to get Steam Deck Verified by launch, it would not only be a first for the series but also a true feat of optimization.

For now, Ubisoft believes the game should at least run well on the Steam Deck, despite previously claiming the device falls below minimum specs for PC. That said, Assassin’s Creed Shadows launches on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S on March 20, so we will likely get more updates on its Steam Deck status this week.

About the Author

Hassam Nasir

Hassam boasts over seven years of professional experience as a dedicated PC hardware reviewer and writer.