If you’re wanting to dive into Tamriel on the go, then you’ve got the go-ahead from Zenimax and Bethesda. As of now, The Elder Scrolls Online has officially earned itself the “Playable” status for Steam Deck players, meaning players can take it to go. However, according to the official blog post, there’s only one small catch.
While you can officially download and even play ESO on the Steam Deck anywhere you have battery and wifi, it still hasn’t earned the full-fledged “Verified” status. The blog post says that this’ll likely be the cause until the next update, and until then, there may be some UI issues. However, you can now hop on over to the game’s Steam page and at least get the game onto your Steam Deck officially.
As light speculation, the UI issues themselves may be the holdout for the Verified status, as the Steam Verified program, according to the official site, has four checks: Input, Display, Seamlessness, and System Support. Assumedly, this UI issue falls under at least two of the issues, Display and Seamlessness, and the upcoming patch mentioned in the blog will amend this.
Steam Deck is a great way for MMORPG players to keep up with the dailies and weeklies that come with the genre’s territory, regardless of distance from home. And ESO wouldn’t be the first AAA MMO to be playable, as, while it’s Playable but not officially Verified, Gabe Newell himself has admitted he plays FFXIV on the Steam Deck.
