Can you play Dead Island 2 on Steam Deck?

Dead Island 2 and all of its gory glory is going to be available on a healthy handful of platforms when it debuts, but will you be able to play it on Valve’s Steam Deck?

The 2022 release of the Steam Deck handheld console saw the portable gaming market explode wide open thanks to the presence of Valve’s behemoth. As a result, every major AAA release, Dead Island 2 included, has its availability questioned where the Steam Deck is concerned.

Dead Island 2 has rightfully been gaining attention, given the popularity of the first entry, and fans want to know if they can slice and dice Zombies in Los Angeles on a smaller screen.

While Dead Island 2 might not come to Steam, there may still be ways to get around those limitations to get the game up and running on Valve’s portable powerhouse. But, you’ll need to do some work in order to get it up and running.

Dambuster Studios

Is Dead Island 2 on Steam Deck?

Dead Island 2 is theoretically playable on Steam Deck. However, you will have to put in some effort in order to ensure that the game even boots at all.

Deep Silver, the publisher of Dead Island 2, has already announced that the zombie title is bound by a deal with the Epic Games Store on PC. This means that Dead Island 2 cannot be bought through Steam, and a knock-on effect of this is that it prevents the game from being run natively on the Steam Deck without some tinkering.

But, since the Steam Deck is essentially a PC, you will still be able to play it by installing Lutris on your Steam Deck and setting up your Epic Games account from there. We’ve even written a handy guide to help you through the process. While there’s no official compatibility on Proton quite yet, we’ll be sure to update you on how the game runs on the Steam Deck when it officially releases.

You can currently enjoy Dead Island 1 on the Steam Deck, and you can prepare your system for its launch by setting up Epic Games Store on the device, too.

If you enjoyed our useful guide and want to know even more about Dambuster Studio’s take on zombies, then take a look at some other Dead Island 2 guides we have:

Dead Island 2 Achievements & Trophies list | Will Dead Island 2 be on Xbox Game Pass? | Dead Island 2 preview | Will Dead Island 2 be open world?