FromSoftware’s 2015 PS4-exclusive masterpiece, Bloodborne, is now able to run natively on Linux and Windows—kind of. While there have been multiple projects dedicated to bringing Bloodborne to PC over the past few years, most of these have been all about emulation, with the most notable being through shadPS4, a nascent PS4 emulator. This new project, bbport, aims to emulate Bloodborne‘s GPU performance and rendering on PC, while natively running the game’s original C++ code through a system’s CPU.
It would be more accurate to call bbport a hybrid than a native PC port of Bloodborne. I won’t bury the lede on another controversial aspect of this project, that being that it seems to be at least partially “vibe coded,” co-developed by an ostensibly new Github user and the LLM Claude. While these factors may cause some trepidation, the fact that Bloodborne is even playable on PC, with successful upscaling to 1440p and average FPS as high as 100+, is exciting regardless. This is especially true when you consider that, due to bbport’s Linux origins, Bloodborne is now technically playable on the Steam Deck.
Bloodborne On-the-Go Could Be the Biggest Upside of ‘bbport’
Part and parcel of Linux’s decentralized nature is its use of package managers and, frequently, the command-line interface (CLI), both of which tend to intimidate newcomers. But some gamers may not even be aware that they are already using a Linux device on a regular basis, since the Steam Deck is, in essence, a highly-specialized, compact computer running SteamOS, a version of Linux. AppImage, a file type that generally helps users avoid the aforementioned package managers and CLI, is regularly employed on Steam Decks in order to help users more easily download and run various applications.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Easy (120s)Medium (90s)Hard (60s)
As it happens, this unofficial Bloodborne port has launched with a working AppImage, allowing for easy access to the game on Steam Deck. This is true in theory, at least, since the bbport AppImage, coupled with a valid (legal, of course) dump of Bloodborne‘s original PS4 PKG files, gives users a “one-stop shop” for running the game on Valve’s handheld.
And if ever there were a game to encourage Steam Deck users to experiment with their Linux OS, it’s Bloodborne. The game’s air of legend has only intensified in the years following its release, as Sony/FromSoftware’s unwillingness to give it a modern facelift becomes harder to ignore. To go from being locked at 1080p and 30FPS on PS4 to being playable at 60FPS in the palm of your hand is a massive leap forward, and certainly among the more exciting dimensions of the broader remaster project.
A Reliable Steam Deck Version of Bloodborne Is Still a Ways Off
After spending some hands-on time with the unofficial bbport version of Bloodborne, both on desktop and on Steam Deck, I have to say that I’m quite impressed. Playing this game, which I hold so dear to my heart, at 90 frames per second and, when on desktop, 1440p resolution, has been a novel experience, and this project is one that I hope to follow over the following months and years, assuming Sony doesn’t shut it down, anyway.
But it’s far from the ideal way to play Bloodborne, sadly. While the game looks just as stunning as I would have imagined at 60+ FPS, and some of the 1440p upscaling looks alright, it’s simply far too unstable to recommend at this point. Sudden crashes, unignorable graphical glitches, and boot failures currently characterize the Bloodborne PC experience. And while bbport does run Bloodborne‘s original PS4 code natively on PC hardware, it still relies on a modified version of shadPS4’s graphics renderer, making it something of a hybrid rather than a conventional native PC port. Even the port’s creator, deadinside28 on GitHub, describes it as “experimental,” so there should be no reasonable expectation of reliability. I encountered these issues on both Steam Deck and PC, with PC having better performance overall, as one would expect.
For reference, I tested bbport on a Linux desktop with an RTX 4060, AMD Ryzen 7 5800x, and 32GB of system RAM; your experience with bbport on PC could be wildly different based on your hardware, installation process, and so forth.
There has been plenty of speculation as to why bbport is so hit-and-miss, from its use of shadPS4’s graphics renderer to deadinside28’s lack of programming bona fides. There are also concerns regarding the project’s reliance on Claude. While LLMs can certainly code with high degrees of efficiency and accuracy, they are often suboptimal for complex projects like this one, particularly when used in a “vibe coding” capacity. If and when a vibe coder fails to fully understand a program or file an LLM has written, even relatively minor instances of troubleshooting or reorganization can become nightmarishly difficult.
After spending some hands-on time with the unofficial bbport version of Bloodborne, both on desktop and on Steam Deck, I have to say that I’m quite impressed.
This is to say nothing of the potential issues LLM pose when it comes to collaboration. If deadinside28 decides to step away from the bbport project, it may be harder for someone else to come to grips with so many volumes of AI-generated content. These kinds of endeavors tend to work best when large communities work together, so I sincerely hope that Claude’s involvement doesn’t lead to too many problems down the road.
Bloodborne is one of the greatest games ever, and it deserves a solid Steam Deck port, not to mention a native PC version. What deadinside28 has released so far has a long way to go, but it very well could fill this void someday, especially if Sony isn’t going to step up to the plate.
- Released
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March 24, 2015
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Violence
