Embark on a Gaming Odyssey: Exploring the World of Portable Play
The world of handheld gaming has just gotten a whole lot more exciting with the arrival of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora on Steam Deck. However, the journey to get here has been far from smooth. Since its release in 2023, the action-adventure game based on James Cameron’s record-breaking films has been plagued by performance issues on handheld devices.
Breaking Free from Exclusivity
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora was initially exclusive to Ubisoft’s gaming platform, but now PC players who prefer Steam can finally explore the world of Pandora in a whole new way. However, the game’s experience on Steam Deck is still far from ideal.
Can You Play Avatar Frontiers of Pandora on Steam Deck?
Unfortunately, Avatar Frontiers of Pandora is not playable on Steam Deck and crashes upon startup when playing it natively on the handheld. According to GamingOnLinux, the game is not compatible with the Steam Deck, and when tested with Proton 9 or Proton Experimental, the game will not start up. If it did load, it would run below 30 FPS, similar to reports of its previous Ubisoft Connect experience.
The world of Pandora awaits, but not on Steam Deck… yet
The Mystery of Performance Issues
It’s unclear why Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora struggles on the Steam Deck. The game was developed in the Snowdrop game engine, similar to other Ubisoft titles like South Park: The Fractured But Whole and Tom Clancy’s The Division 2. Currently, The Division 2 is officially playable on the Steam Deck, despite also being an equally graphically intensive game.
However, Frontiers of Pandora is a RAM-hungry game, demanding double that of Tom Clancy’s The Division 2’s 8GB memory requirement. Its performance issues aren’t exclusive to the Steam Deck either, with it receiving multiple mixed reviews on Steam referencing its performance problems on PC.
The game’s performance issues are not limited to the Steam Deck
Waiting for Stability Patches
Sadly, unlike the Kingdom Hearts Steam versions, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora hasn’t solved its previous handheld gaming woes. As a result, we recommend waiting for future stability patches in hopes it becomes better optimized for playing on Steam Deck.
Picking up one of the best microSD cards will help ensure you have plenty of storage for Avatar Frontiers of Pandora or any Steam Deck game you want to play
The Future of Handheld Gaming
Avatar Frontiers of Pandora demands 90GB of install space for your Steam Deck. While it could be worse, that’s still a massive chunk of storage to set aside on your handheld, if you can get the game to run. Picking up one of the best microSD cards will help ensure you have plenty of storage for Avatar Frontiers of Pandora or any Steam Deck game you want to play.
For now, we’ll have to wait and see if Ubisoft can iron out the kinks and make Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora a playable reality on Steam Deck.
