Forget the Steam Machine: This hack will let you play Steam games on PS5

Valve is working on bringing Steam directly to your living room with the new Steam Machine. However, the company has yet to reveal the release date for the hardware. If you’re desperate to start playing your PC games on your couch and you have a PlayStation 5, there’s an alternative you may want to consider.

On GitHub, a new open source project called ps5-linux has dropped. True to its name, the project transforms your PS5 into Linux PC, which will allow you to install Steam.

According to the developers, this hack works by exploiting a patched hypervisor vulnerability in the system, giving the OS access to the console’s eight CPU cores at 3.5GHz and GPU at 2.23GHz. This should provide enough performance to run Steam games and power a variety of emulators. Additionally, this project supports HDMI 4K60 video and audio output, and an M.2 SSD can be used as a dedicated Linux partition.

However, there are some caveats to be aware of. First, the project only supports the original PS5 model, which is also colloquially known as the “PS5 Phat.” The other caveat is that your PS5 will need to be running on 3.xx or 4.xx firmware:

• 3.00, 3.10, 3.20, 3.21, without M.2 support
• 4.00, 4.02, 4.03, 4.50, 4.51 with M.2 support

The developers are keeping the door open for 1.xx and 2.xx firmware. They are also considering adding 5.xx firmwares in the future, but Linux would have to run on a virtual machine for this option, which would limit what features are available.