People forget that Sony has to compete with PC too not just Xbox (hence why Xbox is kinda going the mini PC route). Nintendo are the only big ones who have their own thing with handhelds (Steam Deck just doesn't have enough pull yet to overtake them).
It’s mostly price. If steam decks got the price down I’m sure it would do wonders. But that’s aside from Nintendo being king of IP, that is one of the things that will keep them in the game forever.
Yeah anyone who thinks the Steam Deck is even remotely capable of "overtaking" the Switch simply hasn't looked at the numbers.
Contrary to how it seems online, SD is an incredibly niche console.
Given that the appeal of the steam deck to most people is PC gaming on a handheld, it would always remain niche as a lot of popular PC games arent exactly always controller/linux friendly.
Nothing misinformed about it, it's been underproduced compared to its demand. The fact that it sold out even after an outrageous increase in prices recently is a great demonstration of that.
Its also the fact that the switch 2 just simply outperforms the steam deck since developers are properly optimizing for it. Only thing steam deck has over the switch is niche/indie games on steam.
Its also the fact that the switch 2 just simply outperforms the steam deck since developers are properly optimizing for it.
...I mean the Deck launched years before the Switch 2 and it wasn't using bleeding edge architectures to begin with. The Switch 2 should out perform it just by virtue of having more modern hardware.
The Deck is older hardware now and has some higher system overheads.
Zen 2 came out 7 years ago. RDNA2 came out 6 years ago.
Not at all. It has great value for pc gamers as they got their entire library there without needing to repurchase the games with the switch game tax as games are often more expensive there than on steam.
I have both the steam deck and switch 2. As much as I love my steam deck, it's very underpowered. I have to play many newer games by streaming from my PC with moonlight. The steam deck itself just isn't powerful enough for many modern games.
For a while I kind of that that was point, install indie and older titles direct to it, and then for new titles it cant really handle stream direct from from your pc.
Same here. I initially wanted a deck as a separate device for gaming, but it's hard to justify having two kinds of PCs for that. Cheaper (or it used to be, anyway) to just have one PC that can play everything and then stream into another device, but for that purpose, a Steam Deck is just far too expensive, especially compared to a phone + telescopic controller (though you really can't beat a genuine handheld for comfort and everything else).
Me personally, I'd only buy a steam deck if my PC decides to die on me. I could get a laptop but I don't like the inherent flimsy-ness most laptops are.
But the same argument could be said for the switch 2, as the switch library would have carried over and value yada yada yada.
The argument being made is the consoles themselves, not the consumer behind them. If you don't have a library, the switch 2 is significantly more optimized and faster than the steam deck, and it's $200 cheaper.
You can split hairs on sales and savings on the store fronts, but that still means the breakeven point is several games deep. And, on top of that, most indie games have the same price across both platforms. For that matter, a lot of third party games do too after they've been released a few months. Final Fantasy VII Remake was in sale $13.99 for both steam and Nintendo 3shop, for example.
There’s also a huge gap in release dates between the two, it’s not really a direct comparison. Rather surprised there hasn’t been a new gen Steam Deck yet but the market is already strained.
That really highlights the value of the switch 2. It's newer, faster, and cheaper than the steamdeck. And, again, many third party games share the same price across both platforms
I don't own either yet, but if I had a Steam Deck, I'd be playing Sega Saturn and Playstation 2 games on it. Plus you can finagle it to do keyboard and mouse games with mapping keyboard buttons to the gamepad buttons. Which I do on PC with things like Minecraft/Vintage Story. So moddable / java versions of games are also there (Skyrim / Fallout 4). Especially if you're interested in things like Enderal, Fallout London, or New California
Nintendo will win for people who only care about Nintendo exclusives and just want to buy a ready-game from the market. But for anyone wanting anything more is going to need to choose Steam Deck every time because Nintendo is going to limit your options left and right
That's a good point. Not just switching handheld and docking, but sleep mode is far superior with the switch/switch 2. My steam deck has so many issues going in and out of sleep mode while a game is running. I frequently have audio/visual bugs that occur with sleep mode that only can be fixed by restarting the game on a steam deck. I also have games full on crash after sleep mode.
The switch system is far FAR more stable. It's not 100% perfect, but it's so far beyond the steamdeck in stability that you can reliably use sleep mode for breaks without even regularly saving game progress because crashes or bugs are rare.
At this stage your argument applies to anything not PC. The switch 2 is playing modern high fidelity third party games and the device is more affordable than a PS5 or a PC.
Sure, you can't emulate on it. But neither can you emulate on any other console. So if that's your argument, then I don't disagree. But if you aren't a gamer who wants to install emulators, then the switch 2 is very much a viable choice.
I'm not a particularly big fan of Nintendo's business practices (mostly with regard to fan-content), but even I ended up picking a Switch 2 up this year.
My single complaint with the system is the price of games. On PC I have access to a swathe of new releases in the $40 or less range. I was considering picking up a Cyberpunk 2077's Switch 2 release as I'd heard good things, and wanted to see how the "mouse" controls for Switch 2 work, but the $70 price tag stopped me doing so. Even the second hand market prices things about $10 less than they sell new. This seems to be the case with all the more popular titles.
for anyone wanting anything more is going to need to choose Steam Deck every time because Nintendo is going to limit your options left and right
Funny you should say that, because the scenario you mentioned where you have to mess around with button configurations to get mouse games working on the Deck can be done natively with the Switch and the mouse-functioning Joy-Cons. Switch 2 runs Civ better than a Steam Deck does.
Sure but on average anyone who used bought a game on steam in the past 20 years can play it on the steam deck assuming no anticheat issues.
Can you play a switch game from 20 years ago? ofcourse not as the switch didn't exist back then. and its not like nintendo is making your old purchases from the wii work on the switch.
That's still an argument against consoles in general, and I don't argue against it. Obviously I can't play my 20 year old wii games on my switch, but I can still play them on my wii, and that includes accessing my digital purchases made 20 years ago.
Steam obviously has the advantage their with their legacy storefront. That's a well earned point to Steam. But it's not like Nintendo is alone on the other side. Nintendo, Xbox, PlayStation, Sega, and all other hardware manufacturers have that problem.
Thats the issue still isn't it? If your wii dies in a way that is unrepairable, what then? get another wii to play your old games? they are becoming hard to get.
Yea, but that actually wasn't the whole point lol if your SWITCH 2 dies, you can get a new switch 2 and access your entire switch and switch 2 library. And it's more affordable than the steamdeck/comparable PC and faster than a steam deck.
Nobody, not even die hard Nintendo fans, will say the Wii eshop in 2026 is better than steam as a storefront.
The argument doesn't go nearly as far though. It's more like if the DS, Wii, Wii U, DSi, and 3DS games were all still playable on the Switch 2, because remember, Steam is old by now. They opened it up to third parties in 2005, and plenty of games that are WAY older than that have released on Steam in post. A lot lot of those are runnable on the Steam Deck.
Also, it doesn't stop you from installing third party launchers as well...
It's crazy expansive what kind of mileage you can get. Of course specialized hardware with specialized development will always be some amount faster or more stable, I'm not going to deny that.
It might not be great for long in hand play sessions from a form factor point of view but it invites itself to be played because it’s much thinner and lighter.
I also think it’s a better travel device because you can snap off the joy cons and sit it on a desk and not even have to worry about the weight of the console. The switch might not be comfortable when it’s fully assembled but when you’re doing joy cons in hand without a cradle or attached to the console it feels pretty amazing.
It's much more than that. Reddit significantly overestimates how much pull "adult" gamers have. Switches are very attractive to parents because you can hand it to a kid and it's so locked down you know they aren't doing anything wrong with it. Even though I use my Steam Deck exclusively now, the kids get the Switch to play with. It's a different market entirely and one that is much, much more profitable to conquer as Nintendo has.
Yeah, outside of emulation (which no American company can legally promote) Nintendo is safe as hell with their IP. People aren’t buying the switch because it’s the best handheld console, their buying to because it’s priced decently and can play the newest Pokémon
I was going to start saving for a Steam Deck after starting my new job but then the price went up massively so my money's going to Nintendo now instead. Shame as I'd love my Steam library on a portable but at least the Switch 2 only increased a little bit.
Even in a world where PC components weren’t insanely priced, a future Steam Deck can never compete with a future Switch on price, because Switch’s whole thing is “we sell you mid hardware that we make excellent games for,” and Steam Deck’s whole thing is “a handheld that can play most of your Steam Library.” Steam hardware needs to be beefier in order to play more AAA games without porting ans optimizing.
For Nintendo, the Switch 2 is all they have right now so they pull out all the stops. For everyone else, consoles are a side project. The Steam Deck exists to sell more Steam games and it's great at that. The Xbox exists to sell Game Pass and that strategy isn't really going so well. Sony is in a weird position where gaming was a side project when they were working with Nintendo on a CD add-on for the SNES, but has become vital pillar after the others collapsed. As of late, Playstation is at risk of becoming as irrelevant as Walkman.
The Switch 2 is all Nintendo has? Which of the three gaming companies has its own theme parks? Museum? Movies? I get your sentiment but Nintendo has the world’s biggest media franchise. The Pokémon games make the least money from the games by a mile. Nintendo is the king of selling merchandise.
I mean I've never heard anyone say that about Nintendo either.
They still technically own a theme park nonetheless, have museums, and a massive presence in movie making. Sony's holdings are just under other parts of the company or other names, and most that stuff is on the film-making side of the company.
Okay..? I mean I'd wager most people haven't heard of half the shit Nintendo or Sony are involved with and this is just getting off topic.
Person up there was acting like only one major gaming company had such a presence, which was technically false. I have no opinions specifically on the merits of either corporations' theme park ventures and exhibits.
The switch exists to sell Nintendo games. The attachment rate for first party games is absolutely insane and they basically pocket 100 percent of that. Now they're expanding to basically what Disney does and it's going quite well so far. Them and Valve are probably the best positioned business in gaming period
Handhelds have only gotten bigger though, lots of competition in that market now. From AYN Thor to the Retroid pockets, there’s competition and it’s only getting bigger. Though non are investing in games like Nintendo so there’s not much reason to go with anything but switch 2.
AYN and Retroid are still niche devices used a by a niche group of a niche community. They’ll never have the pull of a Steam deck, let alone the Switch
It might get big enough but currently there is no real competition to Nintendo in that market (Steam Deck is the only one selling millions). Nintendo has strong IPs no doubt about that but they also sell consoles at a low cost coz they make money back in their store. If Steam Deck was cheaper (that dream is gone now with memory prices) it would have sold much better most likely. Hard to compete with both strong IPs and price.
Even the steam deck I would consider an enthusiast device. If the switch sold what the steam deck has sold everyone would be saying it was one of the biggest flops in consoles ever
Not true, I used to buy every Playstation console and all my games on it. Now thanks to competition from pc I moved to steam and pc and Sony lost my recurring revenue. They absolutely compete
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u/Horikyou 15h ago
People forget that Sony has to compete with PC too not just Xbox (hence why Xbox is kinda going the mini PC route). Nintendo are the only big ones who have their own thing with handhelds (Steam Deck just doesn't have enough pull yet to overtake them).