How To Play GeForce Now On The Steam Deck

GeForce Now doesn’t have an official native app on the Steam Deck, but it’s pretty easy to set up and get working.

If you have a Steam Deck, you’ve probably discovered its limitations fairly quickly. It’s certainly powerful, but there are some games that you just won’t ever be able to play on it without some technical wizardry. That technical wizardry can include using tools like Moonlight and Sunshine to stream games from your PC, but the Steam Deck can also actually play games using GeForce Now, Nvidia’s cloud-based game streaming service. It doesn’t have a native app on the Steam Deck, but you can set it up using Google Chrome and a custom Steam shortcut.

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How to play GeForce Now on the Steam Deck

It requires desktop mode

Steam-OS-Steam-Deck-Spotify-Guide-2-Watermarked-1

To play GeForce Now on the Steam Deck, you’ll need to install Google Chrome. We’re going to add a shortcut to Steam for Chrome as a non-Steam game, and that shortcut will specifically navigate to the GeForce website. First, make sure your Steam Deck is powered on.

Press the Steam button and scroll down to power, and then select Switch to Desktop Mode.
Hold the power button and select Switch to Desktop Mode.
In Desktop mode, open Discover in the applications list
Search GeForce Now at the top
Tap Install on the GeForce Now Electron application.

Installing GeForce Now on the Steam Deck

Next, you’ll need to make sure tha GeForce Now Electron can actually use the Steam Deck’s controller layout. Otherwise, when you later launch it, it won’t be able to use the Steam Deck’s controllers properly. Open Konsole, and type the following command:

flatpak --user override --filesystem=/run/udev:ro io.github.hmlendea.geforcenow-electron

Command to give GeForce Now access to the Steam Deck's controls

Once you launch GeForce Now Electron, you’ll be brought to a login page. You cannot use Google SSO to log in with this application, but if you use Google SSO, you can reset the password on your account to login to it normally with a password.

If you want to add GeForce now as a non-Steam game, launch Steam while still in desktop mode, navigate to your Libraryand tap “Add a game” at the bottom left. Select GeForce Now Electron and you’ll then be able to access it while in gaming mode. You can control it with your Steam Deck’s controls or navigate using the touchscreen, and games will be able to support the control layout of the Steam Deck, too.