2024 is fast approaching and Pokemon Unite has continued to be a top player in the mobile MOBA market. While it’s far from reaching the spot both Mobile Legends and Honor of Kings have carved for themselves, the game has still managed to gain a loyal and large following. Just recently, Pokemon Unite saw the debut of Meowscarada, and many players, especially those fans of Pokemon Scarlet & Violet are yearning to try it out. And while the game is certainly fun on mobile, there are tons of players who want to play it on the Steam Deck.
The Steam Deck might not be as powerful as other handhelds like the Rog Ally or Lenovo Legion Go, but it more than makes up for its lower performance capabilities by offering incredible software and hardware support to its users. Aside from being a PC handheld, it’s also a great emulation device. Pokemon Unite, while being native to mobile, certainly seems to be a fun game to play on the Deck. So, continue reading to find out if it’s playable on the Steam Deck or not.
Can you play Pokemon Unite on Steam Deck?
Pokemon Unite is available for two platforms: Mobile (Android & iOS) and the Nintendo Switch. While you can certainly enjoy a lot of Nintendo Switch titles on the Deck, emulating Pokemon Unite on it isn’t great or even recommended at all. This leaves mobile, or more specifically, Android. But why Android specifically? Because Android can be emulated too. So, follow the process as we have mentioned below:
Note: Make sure you are not using dual-boot mode on your Steam Deck.
- Switch the Steam Deck to Desktop Mode, click on Start, and open Konsole.
- Type in or copy-paste the password command first: passwd. If you already don’t have a password, write one, but if you already have one, don’t.
- Now, type in or copy-paste the following command: “sudo steamos-readonly disable”.
- When asked for a password, enter it.
- Next, enter the following three commands:
- sudo pacman -S archlinux-keyring
- sudo pacman-key –init
- sudo pacman-key –populate archlinux
- Once the aforementioned three commands have run without any issues, you will need to install some important packages. For that, you need to use the following commands:
- sudo pacman -S –needed base-devel
- sudo pacman -S base-devel
- Now, it’s time to install Genymotion. Enter the following command to do so:
- yay -Sy –noconfirm genymotion
To see if Genymotion is successfully installed, type in genymotion on the Konsole.
Genymotion Setup
- It’s time to set up Genymotion. Open the application, and start by clicking on the + button located at the top right corner.
- Search for Amazon Fire HD 8 in the search bar and select it for Virtual device installation. Name it whatever you want, set the Android version to 9.0.0, and hit Next.
- After that, set the following parameters for hardware:
- Processors: 6
- Memory size: 8192
- VM Heap size: 512
- Leave the Display section as is. For Android options, leave the first option checked and the second one unchecked. Now hit Install. You can now start Genymotion by clicking on the Play icon.
Android Configuration
- Now, let’s start configuring Android. First, download the ARM Translation packages and Aurora Store. For the ARM package, click on Go to the file on the GitHub page and download package/Genymotion-ARM-Translation_for_9.0.zip. Once both files are downloaded, open File Manager, head to Downloads, drag and drop both zip files, and .apk to the main screen to install them.
- Next, click on the Open GAAPS button and install it.
Downloading Pokemon Unite
Open the Google Play Store and type in Pokemon Unite in the search bar. Now start the download and once the installation is complete, launch the game.
Adding your games to SteamOS
- Open Steam and click on Add a Game > Add a Non-Steam Game.
- Select Genymotion, and then switch back to Gaming Mode.
- You can now launch Genymotion.
Additionally, if you are unable to download certain games, make sure to open the Aurora Store, click on Spoof Manager, and select a device of your choice.
And that’s all the information we have on this topic. Additionally, if you want to know how to set up and install CryoUtilites on the Deck, check out this guide. For more such content, keep following DigiStatement. Also read: Pokemon Unite Error code 3-1-3: How to fix it?
