Yes, Mafia: The Old Country is playable on the Steam Deck, but you'll have to accept some downsides

Today, Mafia: The Old Country launched, and as with any launch day, there are questions. Some players received a black screen for several minutes when they tried to play, and others wonder if they can play on their handheld devices. Overall, this new entry in the Mafia series is receiving solid reviews, with our own Maciej Bogusz calling it a “grand return to the series’ roots.” But the question is, can you play Mafia: The Old Country on Steam Deck? Yes, but you’ll have to accept a downside.

You can play Mafia: The Old Country on Steam Deck, but don’t expect high-quality performance

The Steam Deck is a hugely popular handheld device. Since it launched in 2022, it has finally allowed players to take their Steam libraries on the go. But not every new release is well-optimized for this handheld PC. Relevant to today’s other big game launch, Battlefield 6’s open beta won’t work on Steam Deck due to incompatibility with the competitive multiplayer game’s anti-cheat software. But, regarding Mafia: The Old Country, we do have at least a “playable” version on Steam Deck. In a video shared by Deck Wizard on YouTube, Mafia: The Old Country does work on the device, but you may end up losing some FPS in the process.

In the gameplay’s slower moments, walking around, talking to NPCs, Deck Wizard’s video shows that you can consistently hit around 20 FPS. This is obviously not the 60 FPS that many players will strive for, or even the 30 FPS that feels like the baseline for most AAA games these days. But it does work. So, if you want to take Mafia: The Old Country on the go, you can certainly do it.

But if you watch through to a later part in the video, you can see a cutscene that is a little more fast-paced, and it causes an even sharper drop in frames. At one point, while the protagonist is riding a horse, the frames rubber band up and down, reaching 44 at one point, but hitting a brutal 8 FPS at another point, slowing to a brain-melting crawl.

Of course, this is often the trade-off with handheld devices and consoles. A high-end PC will always win out in terms of quality. So, if you are willing to live with occasional performance issues, Mafia: The Old Country can be a portable experience.

Mafia: The Old Country

August 7, 2025

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• 2K Games
• Mafia (franchise)
• Steam Deck