One of the small, but still important and very wonderful announcements that NVIDIA presented at CES 2025 at their big event they finally had official and full support Steam deck With GeForce now.
Playing from the NVIDIA cloud has never been impossible on the Steam Deck, not least because it has a version that plays through a web browser. Linux has also had an unofficial “app” for some time, which is essentially a wrapper around this web application.
But now, in 2025, NVIDIA promises a native app for Steam Deck.
“Announced today at CES, gamers will soon be able to play games from their Steam library in GeForce RTX quality with the launch of the native GeForce NOW app for Steam Deck. NVIDIA is working to bring cloud gaming to popular PCs. gaming handheld later this year.”
In the past, NVIDIA has also helped players easily set up and run the web version of GeForce Now on Deck with a handy script, but this goes much further. By “native app” we assume they are creating a Linux version of the client, currently available for Windows and Mac. You can also assume that running in game mode will be seamless.
If you go with the top-tier GeForce Now, this means that if you connect the Steam Deck to an external display, you’ll be able to game at up to 4K resolutions, high frame rates, and take advantage of HDR and ray tracing. Settings that you simply cannot achieve natively on Steam Deck. And, of course, all those games that cannot be played on Deck due to incompatibility with anti-cheats, such as Fortnite and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6everyone wins.
But NVIDIA did not say when exactly this application will appear, but later in 2025. But it will be worth the wait and I look forward to checking it out when it arrives.