How to play Assassin's Creed Unity on Linux

Assassin’s Creed Unity is an action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released in 2014 on Windows, PS4, and Xbox One. Here’s how you can play Assassin’s Creed Unity on Linux.

Getting Assassin’s Creed Unity working on Linux

Assassin’s Creed Unity was released on Steam and playable through Ubisoft’s game launcher. However, the game only works on Microsoft Windows natively. If you want to play the game on your Linux system, it is possible, but you’ll have to use Valve’s Proton compatibility tool.

The Proton compatibility tool comes with the Linux release of Steam. To get it working on your Linux computer, open up a terminal window on the desktop. You can launch a terminal by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T on the keyboard.

Once the terminal window is open and ready to use, the installation of Steam is ready to begin. Using the installation instructions below, set up Steam on your Linux computer.

Ubuntu

To use Steam on your Ubuntu system, you’ll need to run the apt install command below.

sudo apt install steam

Debian

If you need to get Steam working on Debian, start by downloading the latest release of Steam from the internet using the wget download command below.

wget https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/client/installer/steam.deb

Now that you’ve downloaded the latest Steam DEB package to your Debian computer, you will be able to install it to your system using the following dpkg command.

sudo dpkg -i steam.deb

With the Steam DEB package installed on your computer, you’ll need to correct any dependency issues that occurred on Debian during the installation process.

sudo apt-get install -f

Arch Linux

Steam is available on Arch Linux, however, users need to enable the “multilib” software repository before attempting to install it. To enable this software repository, open up the /etc/pacman.conf file in a text editor (as root).

Once the text file is open and ready to use, find the “multilib” software repository line and remove the # symbol from in front. Then, remove the # symbol from the lines directly below it. Save the edits when done, and run the pacman -Syy command.

sudo pacman -Syy

Finally, install the latest release of Steam on Arch Linux with the pacman -S command.

sudo pacman -S steam

Fedora/OpenSUSE

Fedora and OpenSUSE Linux both support Steam, and users can install the app through software repositories included with the operating system. However, the Flatpak release of Steam tends to work better on these OSes, so we suggest following those instructions instead.

Flatpak

To set up Steam as a Flatpak, you must enable the Flatpak runtime on your computer. You can enable the runtime by following our how-to guide on the subject. Once set up, install Steam using the two commands below.

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
flatpak install flathub com.valvesoftware.Steam

With the Steam app installed on Linux, open it up and log into your account using your user credentials. Then, follow the step-by-step instructions below to get Assassin’s Creed Unity working on your Linux PC.

Step 1: Open up the Steam menu and click on the “Settings” button to load up the Steam settings area. Inside the Steam settings area, find the “Steam Play” section and click on it with the mouse to access Steam Play configuration settings.

Inside of the Steam Play configuration area, check both boxes. Selecting these two boxes will enable Proton support for all of the games in your Steam library. Be sure to click the “OK” button to confirm your settings.

Step 2: Find the “Store” button inside of the Steam app and select it to load up the Steam game store. Once on the Steam game store, locate the search box, type in “Assassin’s Creed Unity,” and press the Enter key to view the search results.

Look through the Steam store search results for “Assassin’s Creed Unity,” and click on it to access the game’s Steam store page.

Step 3: Once on the Assassin’s Creed Unity Steam Store page, locate the green “Add to cart” button to add the game to your Steam cart. Then, click on the cart icon to purchase Assassin’s Creed Unity for your account.

Step 4: After purchasing AC: Unity, click on the “Library” button inside of the Steam app to access your Steam games library. Then, from there, locate the blue “INSTALL” button and select it to download and install the game.

Keep in mind, AC: Unity is a Ubisoft game. You’ll have to also install Ubisoft’s game launcher to get the game working. For troubleshooting tips, head over to the official ProtonDB page.