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.
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u/snes69 15h ago
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.