Bloodborne can finally run on Steam Deck but it’s not perfect

YouTuber DeckWizard has got Bloodborne running on the Steam Deck thanks to the ShadPS4 PlayStation 4 emulator.

Sony and FromSoftware have still not given Bloodborne the remaster treatment. But that hasn’t stopped fans from developing their own versions of the Lovecraftian Souls-like.

Just last week, developers of the ShadPS4 PS4 emulator were able to get Bloodborne running on PC. While its performance was by no means perfect, this has led to the game being playable on other hardware — including the Steam Deck.

In a video, posted to their YouTube channel on August 24, DeckWizard showed off the emulator’s strengths by running through various starting areas of the game.

Deck Wizard

The iconic Hunter’s Dream area, where the workshop and the Doll lay in wait, runs at around 30 FPS, as seen in the video. The area looks very similar to that of the PS4 version, albeit some textures haven’t fully loaded.

However, things take a turn when DeckWizard shows off Old Yarnham. On the Steam Deck OLED, the area looks almost unrecognizable, with missing textures and assets galore.

Even sections of the player model seemingly disappear, with the hunter’s torso becoming entirely transparent.

DeckWizard themselves explains in the video’s description that the game: “will hardcrash very often on the Steam Deck.”

When it gets to the first encounter, found at the beginning of the game, it looks almost unplayable. The floorboards of Iosefka’s Clinic are missing entirely, as seen in the footage.

Although DeckWizard was still able to pull off the otherwise unplayable fight.

This performance isn’t entirely unexpected. Just like on PC, Bloodborne doesn’t run entirely smoothly.

As a work-in-progress emulator, ShadPS4’s support for Bloodborne on PC amounts to slowdown, motion blur, and similar missing textures as found on the Steam Deck.

Regardless, seeing Bloodborne run at all on the Steam Deck, without an official native version, is an impressive feat.

The YouTuber does warn that, if you want to try this out for yourself it requires a “complicated setup.”

To get Bloodborne running on Steam Deck, through the PS4 emulator, it also requires a backup of your own version of the game, including the dumping of your own PS4 hardware files.

For now, if you’re desperate to play Bloodborne on the go, you can check out our remote-play guide. You may be subject to some lag and latency, but it’s the closest there is to officially playing Bloodborne on Steam Deck.

If you’re keen on getting set up with emulation on the Steam Deck, check out our Emudeck guide, though ShadPS4 still seems too early to integrate with that software for now.