Can you play Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart on Steam Deck?

The iconic duo are making their first appearance on PC, but will Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart work on the Steam Deck?

Launching on the PlayStation 5, Ratchet and Clank was the show stopper during the early weeks of Sony’s console. It needed the super-fast PCIe 4.0 SSD inside, and the graphical fidelity provided by an RDNA 2 graphics system to fully power it.

On PC, we’re not so constrained and it appears both Valve and Insomniac agree. There’s no requirement for an SSD, and the requirements to get it running on a PC are fairly easy to work around. The Steam Deck fits perfectly into that slot.

Verified by Valve on the Steam Deck, we’re still waiting to get our hands on the game properly before we can confirm the best settings. However, it’s okay to be wary after the poorly ported The Last of Us Part 1, which was also planned to be verified before launch.

Nixxes handling Ratchet and Clank port is good news for Steam Deck owners

Sony Interactive Entertainment

Though, this time, the studio handling the port is Nixxes, Sony’s specialists. The team in the Netherlands already have a stellar track record when it comes to Sony’s PC ports and the Steam Deck.

When we reviewed Spider-Man: Miles Morales, we found it to be an excellent way to play the game, with a steady 60FPS when using FSR or XeSS or a great 40FPS when adjusting the settings further.

They also worked on the Horizon Zero Dawn port, bringing it up to speed after a dicey launch. It’s fair to say that if Nixxes is touching a PC port for Sony, it’ll work just fine on the Steam Deck.

Also, with the requirement of the PCIe 4.0 SSD out of the window, it means that Steam Deck should be able to load pretty quickly off both the microSD and internal SSD, but again, we’ll have to wait for the comparisons.