The new Steam Deck, do you think it will run FFXIV?

[SarcasticFrog]

For the most part, I expect FFXIV to run on the Steam Deck (Windows installation not required), but I'm not going to expect it to run particularly well. FFXIV on Wine or Proton already runs pretty reliably and I have no double that SteamOS will support Proton or given that it's still runing desktop linux, a user could install Lutris and then have their hand held through the entire installation process + the couple of fixes Linux users need to launch/play without issues.

But I do expect there to be some issues like:
- The Steam Deck has a resolution of 1280x800. That's some pretty limited screen space and given small mobile screens, text is going to probably be quite difficult to read.
- We don't know what controller support is going to be like yet. I'd imagine it's going to be just fine in SteamOS, but if a user decides to just boot into Windows directly, are they going to have a driver in that case? (Probably yes, but it could be shotty dinput basics).
- The AMD APU being used isn't exactly console-graphics amazing, let alone gaming PC tier. Given that it's RDNA2 instead of Vega cores, users can probably expect better than the current APU/integrated graphics offerings, but I wouldn't expect to be playing on better than low/medium settings. Then again, with the screen resolution, it's not like you'd notice higher quiality graphics.

Well, speaking from experience, I can say with confidence that FF14 runs great under Proton for me and I don't foresee having that many issues of getting it to run on the Steam Deck. Though your mileage may vary

I think the issues that you bring up are largely non-issues because I don't think many people who purchases this device will do so to play games like FF14 in handheld mode.

But touching on the issues you bring up though:

* Resolution is a non-issue for me, particularly if you can connect it to a dock and have to access to HDMI and DP outputs.

* AFAIK Xinput is available for Linux, directinput is not because it is a M$ legacy API.

* Your concerns about the AMD APU I quite frankly do not get when it is far more powerful than the four year or so old Nvidia Tegra X1 SOC housed in the Nintendo Switch. And both current-gen consoles are running similar AMD APU architectures along with the RDNA2 as the Steam Deck. So, for its price point and that you can turn it into a literal PC by connecting it to a dock and hooking a monitor and hooking KBM to it, it is a pretty good deal.