While Elden Ring’s performance issues aren’t exclusive to PC gamers, those with desktops appear to be getting the brunt of it. As a result, Elden Ring currently holds a “mixed” review score on Steam, which is a far cry from what you’d expect from a game that many consider as one of the best of all time. To make matters worse, Elden Ring isn’t running well on a variety of systems, including top-of-the-line gaming builds that should be able to handle the FromSoftware title’s relatively modest hardware requirements. If it’s any consolation, it is only Elden Ring’s launch weekend and FromSoftware has already deployed a series of patches in an attempt to fix the problems. It should only be a matter of time until FromSoftware finds a way to put this all behind them. What is interesting here is that Valve rated Elden Ring as a Steam Deck verified title. This should have been good news for the small handful of Steam Deck users that managed to get their hands on Valve’s portable console over the weekend. According to Valve, a “Verified” rating suggests that the game will give a “great, smooth experience on Deck.” However, if Elden Ring isn’t even running right on high-end PCs, you can’t help but wonder how much worse it will perform on the Steam Deck. The only possible explanation is that either FromSoftware put in more time optimizing Elden Ring for the Steam Deck or Valve’s Steam Deck rating system needs more work. While unfortunate, such launch issues aren’t exactly new to FromSoftware. The studio still hasn’t even fixed the PC port of the original Dark Souls game and the sequel’s PC port didn’t fare any better. But, you’d think that FromSoftware had things already figured out by now given that the remastered version of Dark Souls for the PC and Dark Souls 3’s PC port both had significantly better launches and are generally considered “better” versions. The silver lining here is that Elden Ring is far from a bad game on the PC, but FromSoftware will need to take care of the problems as soon as possible otherwise the studio risks sullying the game’s historically high critical score.
