The Steam Deck is a wonderful little machine for PC gaming on the go, but it can also be used for Remote Play on the PS5 and PS4 consoles. That shouldn’t be all that surprising. After all, this is a full PC thanks to the desktop mode. What is surprising is that we actually have all the tools we need to set up PS5 Remote Play on the Steam Deck.
After setting this up myself, the process is mostly straightforward and doesn’t take too long. From start to finish you’re probably looking at 10-20 minutes tops. Then in no time at all you’re off and running. Capable of booting up your PS5 or PS4 games on your Steam Deck whenever the mood strikes you.
That being said, there are quite a few steps. So let’s go through all of them and get your Steam Deck set up. First though, here are some helpful things to make this process go smoother.
- Have a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to connect to the Steam Deck.
- Make sure your PS5 or PS4 is already powered on.
- Have a device handy that you can read these instructions on
With that out of the way, let’s jump into it.
How To Set Up PS5 Remote Play On The Steam Deck
To set up PS5 Remote Play on the Steam Deck you will need to start with your Steam Deck in desktop mode. If you’re unsure how to put the Steam Deck into desktop mode, not to worry. We have you covered there.
Put the Steam Deck into desktop mode
To get the Steam Deck into desktop mode and running like a more traditional PC, hit the Steam button. Once you hit the Steam button you want to scroll all the way down to power options.
Next, click the option that says switch to desktop mode. This will boot your Steam Deck into a more PC-like experience. This is where you’re going to want to have the keyboard and mouse handy.
Pair a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse
Once the Steam Deck is desktop mode, it’s time to pair the keyboard and mouse. First, open up the Bluetooth device options on the Steam Deck. You should see a little Bluetooth icon in the right corner of the UI. It’ll be sitting in the taskbar across the bottom of the screen.
Click on that and add a new device after putting your mouse and keyboard into pairing mode. Keep in mind that you will need to pair each accessory separately. Once that’s done, go ahead and move on to the next step. Also worth noting is that you don’t need an external mouse and keyboard for this. It just makes things much easier.
Open the Discover app store and download Chiaki
Now that you have a mouse and keyboard hooked up or if you’re doing this without, launch the Discover app store. Then search for and install an app called Chiaki. This is your unofficial Remote Play app. Once you have the app installed, close the Discover app store but don’t launch Chiaki just yet.
Open the app launcher and launch the Konsole app
Click the Steam Deck icon in the task bar to open the app launcher. Scroll down to the System category and look for the konsole app. This is your terminal/command center app. Launch Konsole and then type in the following commands in order, hitting the enter key on the keyboard after each command. Make sure to let the command finish what it’s doing before typing in the next one and hitting enter again.
- curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py > get-pip.py && python3 get-pip.py
- python3 -m pip install requests
- curl https://git.sr.ht/~thestr4ng3r/chiaki/blob/master/scripts/psn-account-id.py > psn-account-id.py
Copy the URL from the Konsole app
After you’ve type in the third command in the Konsole app and hit the enter key on the keyboard, at the bottom of the script you should see a line that says copy this URL into a browser. Copy the URL right after that and then paste into the browser. The default browser on the Steam Deck is Firefox, but if you have another one installed you can use that it doesn’t matter.
Login to your PSN account
That URL will take you to the PSN account login page. Login to your PSN account. Afterwards, you should just see a blank page that says “redirect” in the top left corner. That’s fine, that’s what you want. Now just copy the URL from the browser bar, then paste that back into the Konsole app and hit the enter key again.
Copy your PSN account ID
After you’ve hit the enter key in the Konsole app, let the script finish which should just take a few seconds. Then copy the account ID. You will see a little line after the script finishes that says “this is your account ID.” The ID on the line just below that will be what you need to copy.
Launch the Chiaki app
Now that you have your account ID copied, launch the Chiaki app, but make sure your PS5 or PS4 is powered on first. Once Chiaki opens up, you should see your console listed with the icon in the style of whichever PlayStation system it is, along with the name you gave the system when you set it up.
Double click it and then paste the account ID into the field labeled PSN account ID. Make sure you’re on whatever the latest PlayStation firmware is listed for your system. If you’re using a PS5 there will only be one. Now, go to your PS5 or PS4, go to settings, then add a Remote Play device. On the PS5, this is located under Settings, then System, Remote Play, and finally Link Device. On PS4, go to Settings, then Remote Play Connection Settings, and finally Add Device.
The PlayStation system should kick you back an 8-digit code. Go back to Chiaki and type that 8-digit code into the field labeled PIN. Once you type the PIN in, click the register button. You should see a message that says the console has been successfully registered. And how you have most of the setup done.
Launch Steam
Go ahead and exit the Chiaki app and then launch the Steam client while still in desktop mode. Now click to add a new game to Steam, and then click on add a non-Steam game. check the box next to Chiaki and then click add selected program. Now go back to gaming mode. You can do this by exiting Steam and clicking the icon on the desktop that says Return to Gaming Mode.
Go to your library and launch Chiaki
That’s basically it. Now you should be able to launch Chiaki from your game library. It will be listed under the Non-Steam category. The only other thing you will probably want to do is spend a little bit of time mapping out controls as best you can using the DualShock configuration. You don’t necessarily need to do this for every game you stream to the Steam Deck using Remote Play. But it will be worth it. And that’s it! You’re all set to go.
All of these steps are laid out very nicely but if you want a more visual guide, you can watch the video below from YouTube Channel Gardiner Byant, which does a fantastic job walking you through everything as well.
2022-05-07 15:04:41