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Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is out now and like other recent Sony PlayStation releases on PC, it forces a PlayStation Network Account which is causing issues for some desktop Linux players.

You can run it on Linux with Valve's Proton, but you might have issues actually logging into the PSN account system to play it. Not particularly surprising, since with God of War Ragnarök you needed to pretend your desktop Linux system was a Steam Deck but in this case you don't want to do that.

Writing on the Steam forum, a developer at Nixxes Software said to do this instead:

The SteamDeck parameter includes other changes specifically designed for the Steam Deck.
If you are experiencing issues with the login flow on Linux, please use the following workaround:

On Steam, right click the game in your Library, choose Properties, go to General.
Add -showlinkingqr in the field for Launch Options

Nice to see this sort of thing has been thought about, and to have a developer directly reply with a solution.

Hopefully some GamingOnLinux readers find this helpful.

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered | Release Date: 31st October 2024

Official links and where to buy from:

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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23 comments
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nebadon2025 Oct 31
SteamDeck=1 %command% *SCROLL TO END OF COMMENTS FOR UPDATE*

is what worked for me on my desktop machine! I did not get to test above mentioned method because this one just worked.


Last edited by nebadon2025 on 5 November 2024 at 1:26 pm UTC
Stella Oct 31
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Thank you! Nice of Sony to actively support Linux and the Steam Deck. They get showered in criticism due to their forced PSN account BS but make sure this actually works on SD/Linux, unlike other publishers who block their games entirely (most recently, Apex Legends)
Sakuretsu Oct 31
Requiring a PSN Account makes it unplayable IMO.

Not upgrading my original HZD until that bullshit is removed.
Linas Oct 31
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A remaster? Of a game released in 2020?
tuubi Oct 31
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A remaster? Of a game released in 2020?
2017. Only the PC port came out in 2020.
Jarmer Oct 31
I have so many emotions / comments about this whole thing lolol

  • like @linas said: wtf why does this even exist at all, a remaster of a game that needs absolutely no remaster at all wtf wtf wtf

  • nixxes are some of the absolute best devs out there, I swear they are amazing. While I didn't like the Forbidden West game (at all, god it was so so so so so so so horrible) their work on the pc version of the game was damn near flawless. By far the best I've seen for any modern release.

  • fuck sony for forcing psn logins into their games and breaking stuff like this all over the place

  • the original non-psn-bullshit game being delisted is awful and I wish steam/valve would make this impossible to do

  • the first game is still amazing in this series, but the second was a major step down in quality, so I'm not even excited for the third installation at all



Last edited by Jarmer on 31 October 2024 at 9:25 pm UTC
Stella Oct 31
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I have so many emotions / comments about this whole thing lolol

  • like @linas said: wtf why does this even exist at all, a remaster of a game that needs absolutely no remaster at all wtf wtf wtf

  • nixxes are some of the absolute best devs out there, I swear they are amazing. While I didn't like the Forbidden West game (at all, god it was so so so so so so so horrible) their work on the pc version of the game was damn near flawless. By far the best I've seen for any modern release.

  • fuck sony for forcing psn logins into their games and breaking stuff like this all over the place

  • the original non-psn-bullshit game being delisted is awful and I wish steam/valve would make this impossible to do

  • the first game is still amazing in this series, but the second was a major step down in quality, so I'm not even excited for the third installation at all
what didn't you like about Forbidden West? While there are some regressions I noticed particularly in the UI department, I still enjoyed it coming from Zero Dawn. Curious what other people think about it
Stella Oct 31
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While I do agree about the delisting being shameful, I like that they made it a separate package and not a forced upgrade for the original + PSN requirement. I hated the Witcher 3's forced Next Gen update because it broke all my 100+ mods…
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While I do agree about the delisting being shameful, I like that they made it a separate package and not a forced upgrade for the original + PSN requirement. I hated the Witcher 3's forced Next Gen update because it broke all my 100+ mods…
For now, the good news is you can get the original, still:
https://www.gog.com/en/game/horizon_zero_dawn_complete_edition
Dana Souly Oct 31
I've got a PSN Account for many, many years so this is not an issue for me, but i (normally) don't buy a game I've already played through. (No Mans Sky was the only exception so far)
jak and daxter, Legend of spyro series remasters when? no seriously why are they sleeping on those SO HARD? people would buy those in an instant... especially on PC!
jens Nov 1
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Nixxes is/are cool!
Yueh Nov 1
This game doesn't need a remaster. It's just a scam.
GamingTFM Nov 1
Remaster after 4 years - geez
Termy Nov 1
Nice to see this sort of thing has been thought about, and to have a developer directly reply with a solution.

On the one hand - yeah, nice that they reply. But on the other (much bigger) hand: Forcing an absolutely useless BS-Login on a SP game is just despicable and an absolute dealbreaker for me. Shame on you, Sony!
Okona Nov 1
Requiring a PSN Account makes it unplayable IMO.

Not upgrading my original HZD until that bullshit is removed.

I totally agree! Why account (and therefore online) requirement for a singleplayer game?
I will vote against it with my purse.
Kusho Nov 1
The command did make the game launch, (Add -showlinkingqr in the field for Launch Options) but you can not import games from the previous game on Linux. Horizon Zero Dawn was installed in the default dir and Remastered did not detect it. Luckily I dual boot, so I booted into Windows, and installed both Remaster and complete. Then Imported my latest save, saved in Remastered, and booted back into Fedora. The game worked for a bit. I tried to clear a nearby bandit camp, and died. When I started back at the nearest campfire, my controls were off. I was using a PS5 controller to play. When I pressed L2 to hold my bow, and pressed R2 to draw, the game did nothing. It did not seem to register R2. But when I let go of L2 and pressed R2 by itself I would do a spear attack, so R2 did still register. But I could not fire my bow. I went to setup, made sure I was on the default PS5 controller scheme, but still it did not work. I tried setting a custom config, but no it still did not work. I could not fire my bow at all. Until they fix this bug the game is not playable. I can still play in Windows, but I dislike running anything in Windows. I just keep it boot-able for work and college exams.
Jarmer Nov 1
what didn't you like about Forbidden West? While there are some regressions I noticed particularly in the UI department, I still enjoyed it coming from Zero Dawn. Curious what other people think about it

It really felt like the developers didn't understand AT ALL what the community / gamers / fans liked and disliked about the first game.

At the end of the day, there were two things that made me completely quit the game mid-way through which I would NEVER have even dreamed of doing on the first game.

1) the story. The story in the first game was absolutely phenomenal, like one of my all time favorites. I LOVED learning about the past through those little data slates you picked up and the holographic stories. And the twists and turns and plot elements kept it super interesting. The reveals about what really happened were impactful and super cool to then experience the world knowing what you now know. It was just overall a REALLY good story.

In Forbidden West, I couldn't even tell you anything about the story. I made it halfway through the game, but all I can even remember is that you're supposed to go west following sylens and __________________. No clue. We already know what happened, and the whole "super soldier bad guys" trope from the original colony was just SO BADLY DONE. omg so bad.

2) the bloat. The blooooaaaaaaattttttt. I got to a point where I was having to make manual notes to keep track of the things NOT to do on the map, since there were SO MANY useless quests that are completely just wastes of time. Like there's this super long series of quests where you have to grind a metric fuckton of resources on the worst ever fetch quests of all time, and then the reward is an armor set I will never ever wear since it doesn't fit the build I'm playing. And then there's those hunting grounds, and the arena, and the races, absolutely none of which I wanted to ever do. At all.

But the kicker is the armor / weapons. Omg they made it SO MUCH WORSE. Now it's nearly impossible to get fully upgraded gear since you have to grind ultra rare parts for what seems like an eternity. I remember in the first game feeling really good and happy about maxing out my gear near the end of the game. In FW, when I looked up what it would take to do so, I just totally gave up, knowing that I'd never have the energy to grind that much. Which then totally destroys the entire upgrade system since now I don't even care about it.

Not only that, but also how many different types of weapons and ammo and modifiers are there now? I lost track I can't even count them! It was borderline comical how idiotic the entire ammo/weapon system was. "okay so this monster is weak to fire. Got it. But wait, there are like 18 different weapon/ammo/mods that do fire damage, do I want spears or arrows or bombs or traps or wires or guns but wait I really like this spear but I don't have any ammo for it. But I do have a ton of ammo for this gun I don't like, hang on I have now completely forgotten who am I even fighting?"

It was just almost totally a step backwards. Really one of the biggest let downs in the past several years for me. I had been looking forward to this title for sooooooooo long since I loved the first one so much.


Last edited by Jarmer on 1 November 2024 at 5:01 pm UTC
Stella Nov 1
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The command did make the game launch, (Add -showlinkingqr in the field for Launch Options) but you can not import games from the previous game on Linux. Horizon Zero Dawn was installed in the default dir and Remastered did not detect it. Luckily I dual boot, so I booted into Windows, and installed both Remaster and complete. Then Imported my latest save, saved in Remastered, and booted back into Fedora. The game worked for a bit. I tried to clear a nearby bandit camp, and died. When I started back at the nearest campfire, my controls were off. I was using a PS5 controller to play. When I pressed L2 to hold my bow, and pressed R2 to draw, the game did nothing. It did not seem to register R2. But when I let go of L2 and pressed R2 by itself I would do a spear attack, so R2 did still register. But I could not fire my bow. I went to setup, made sure I was on the default PS5 controller scheme, but still it did not work. I tried setting a custom config, but no it still did not work. I could not fire my bow at all. Until they fix this bug the game is not playable. I can still play in Windows, but I dislike running anything in Windows. I just keep it boot-able for work and college exams.
I remember reading about this bow issue on the forum, there was no clear conclusion on what causes it. But, Windows users experience it too. And most likely the savegame input did not work because while Zero Dawn was installed on your system, its files are in a different proton prefix that the game is unable or not programmed to find. So you'd likely need to copy the existing savegames to the Proton Prefix for Zero Dawn Remastered so the game can find them.


Last edited by Stella on 1 November 2024 at 5:20 pm UTC
Stella Nov 1
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Here's a tutorial on how to import savegames on linux, written for Steam Deck but the steps should be pretty similar for Desktop: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2561580/discussions/0/4634860269337596243/
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