I turned my Steam Deck into the ultimate cross-platform gaming machine

I’ve been playing a lot of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which, as a self-proclaimed PC gaming snob, would have presented a problem for me in the past. After all, a console exclusive like Rebirth just doesn’t fit into my typical pattern of gaming, which oscillates between desktop at home and Steam Deck on the go.

But I’ve found a solution, opening up the world of third-party apps and breaking the mold for the Steam Deck. It’s allowed me to game far beyond my Steam library, revealing the immense versatility that is latent in the Steam Deck’s design.

Streaming your PS5

I’ve been playing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, so that’s the best place to start. If you own a PlayStation 5, you probably know about the PS Remote Play app, which allows you to stream gameplay from your console to your phone or computer. It doesn’t work on Linux, unsurprisingly, so that would normally lock you out of using PS Remote Play on your Steam Deck.

That’s where Chiaki comes into play — or more specifically, Chiaki4Deck, which is a fork of the original utility. This is a Linux-based PS Remote Play app that’s available right in the app store on the Steam Deck’s desktop.

If you want to set it up, go to the Discover store on the Steam Deck’s desktop and install Chiaki. Open it once you’re done, and as long as your PS5 and Steam Deck are connected to the same network, you should see it appear. Select it, and you’ll have to go through some remote play setup. First, you need to enter your PSN ID in Base64. FlipScreen Games has a tool that can help you with this. Copy it over to Chiaki, and then enter the pin you normally get from your console to start remote play (you can find this in Settings > Remote Play > Link Device).

Your PS5 is linked at this point, but there are still some configuration steps. Open Steam on the desktop and select Add a non-Steam game. Add Chiaki, and you’ll be able to see it in SteamOS once you