Are PC handhelds like Steam Deck really competitors for Switch 2?
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It didn't have the form factor of the Switch
So it's not a similar device. Comparing to phones is rather misleading, given that phones do not have active cooling and wouldn't actually be able to run the kinds of games the Switch hardware could without catching on fire in the process. They aren't gaming hardware.
It's a portable gaming device. It is in the same market.
You can play complex strategy games that require strong CPUs like Project Highrise, The Final Earth 2, Mega Mall Story 2 on mobile.
You won't be able to run The Final Earth 2 even with the standard mobile population limit on a Switch because it uses an ancient CPU and it's a quad core.
Don't limit yourself by Nintendo PR and marketing. The gaming world (portable or otherwise) is not limited to Nintendo.
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I'd much rather buy a Steam Deck and run Switch emulation on it, knowing I can buy games a whole lot cheaper on Steam sales.
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Imagine if you could go on the Nintendo store and buy a game you couldn’t even run, or had to check a third party website to see if it ran acceptably and let you use all the buttons.
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Imagine if you could go on the Nintendo store and buy a game you couldn’t even run, or had to check a third party website to see if it ran acceptably and let you use all the buttons.
How is that different from any other computer buying from steam, ever? In the history of all computer games? A steam deck is a hand held computer with a community large enough, and system specs stable enough to have a rating on potentially any PC, and most Nintendo games in existence. Compared to south nintendo walled garden. Your comparing append to oranges.
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How is that different from any other computer buying from steam, ever? In the history of all computer games? A steam deck is a hand held computer with a community large enough, and system specs stable enough to have a rating on potentially any PC, and most Nintendo games in existence. Compared to south nintendo walled garden. Your comparing append to oranges.
It's not different. Nintendo's target group just don't want to bother with it.
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Think about what the parent is going to buy their kids a easy to use Nintendo console or the Steam deck that doesn't run every game you can buy on it because it's really a pc
If you try to buy a game on the deck that isn't verified to run there you get a warning. Meanwhile you have a limited selection on the switch of over priced games.
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Think about what the parent is going to buy their kids a easy to use Nintendo console or the Steam deck that doesn't run every game you can buy on it because it's really a pc
Deck runs every game that you can easily buy on deck, and then some that you can't
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Imagine if you could go on the Nintendo store and buy a game you couldn’t even run, or had to check a third party website to see if it ran acceptably and let you use all the buttons.
If you try to buy a game on Deck that you couldn't run on Deck, there will be very clear warning about it, one you can't miss. At least it was last time I checked. And to be honest, I'm pretty sure the number of games like that is now almost exclusively consists of competitive shooters, and you wouldn't even thinking of buying it on Deck anyway.
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Honestly I prefer console to PC so much, even as a fediverse user, linux user, someone who has a degoogled phone and uses a home server instead of a cloud, because I just hate having to worry if games are compatible with my hardware, or if controllers are compatible with my game, or if graphical oddities in my game represent supernatural parts of the story or that I didn't install the right NVidia driver. When it comes to games, which are leisure, I find I just can't relax with PC games like I can with console games. As for emulation, I can't enjoy my games like that at all becuse the worry that settings are wrong or emulation is wrong is just too much like work. So I love my switch and I'll probably love my switch 2 one day.
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Do people actually think its a competitor? This is just news sites trying to make something up for clicks surly.
You can go on random comment section on internet, and people are starting new "console war" for Steam Deck vs Nintendo Switch.
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Easily. Aside from the first party titles, there's literally no reason to get a Switch 2. Everything else is objectively better on a PC handheld (especially the Deck).
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Saved you a click: "nO thEyre DiffErANT dEmoGraphiCS"
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Think about what the parent is going to buy their kids a easy to use Nintendo console or the Steam deck that doesn't run every game you can buy on it because it's really a pc
This is what cracks me up about this topic literally every time it comes up.
Everyone on highly tech savvy and linux loving lemmy not being able to wrap their heads around the idea that busy parents dont want to have to tech support their kids game console. They want to be able to tell Grandma "He has a switch 2 and wants the new pokemon game for his birthday", they want to walk into stores and buy accessories that WILL fit and they dont want microtransaction laden shit. One of the FEW things I still respect about Nintendo is that their AAA in house releases are FULL games (for the price, they would fucking want to be).
The 6 to 12yo market alone is probably enough to make the switch worthwhile from a business perspective. The "just tech savvy enough to work facebook" crowd adds in the profit margins.
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How is that different from any other computer buying from steam, ever? In the history of all computer games? A steam deck is a hand held computer with a community large enough, and system specs stable enough to have a rating on potentially any PC, and most Nintendo games in existence. Compared to south nintendo walled garden. Your comparing append to oranges.
How is that different from any other computer buying from steam
To begin with, Nintendo Switch isn't "any other computer" where you can "buy from Steam", so this question seems irrelevant to this discussion.
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Easily. Aside from the first party titles, there's literally no reason to get a Switch 2. Everything else is objectively better on a PC handheld (especially the Deck).
Yes everything is better on a handheld PC. But the Deck is not a very good handheld PC. It is priced to be at the same tier as contemporary handheld PCs like the Rog Ally, the Legion Go, The MSI claw, the GPD Win 4, but all those handheld PCs can play current AAA titles while the Steamdeck is so underpowered that it struggles to emulate PS3 games. There are more recent devices that can play the same catalog as the steamdeck but cost a lot less, are more portable, and are just better built like the Odin 2 or the Retroid Pocket 5. At this point I am not sure what the use case is for the deck anymore. Every thing that the Deck can do, there are other devices that do it better and for less money.
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And theoretically you can install Windows on a Steam Deck. Not making something specifically unsupported doesn't mean you're not building your business model around the default use case.
For the record, Nintendo games can be legally run on an emulator, much as Nintendo may protest this. It's a pain in the ass to do so without technically breaking any regulation, but it sure isn't impossible, and the act of running the software elsewhere isn't illegal.
Yes but the act of dumping a game or acquiring it in any capacity is illegal (circumventing DRM measures) as well as running the game (which also requires circumventing DRM measures)
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How is that different from any other computer buying from steam
To begin with, Nintendo Switch isn't "any other computer" where you can "buy from Steam", so this question seems irrelevant to this discussion.
My comment is germane to the post comparing the two devices in an aspect that exemplifies how they can’t be compared, and tries to spin it as a negative, while attempting to bury its positive.
The fact you say that the switch is not like any other computer is both true in the sense that i already argued, and false in that it IS yet just another computer, but with a walled garden.
If there was any a comment that was irrelevant, it would be yours.
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Yes everything is better on a handheld PC. But the Deck is not a very good handheld PC. It is priced to be at the same tier as contemporary handheld PCs like the Rog Ally, the Legion Go, The MSI claw, the GPD Win 4, but all those handheld PCs can play current AAA titles while the Steamdeck is so underpowered that it struggles to emulate PS3 games. There are more recent devices that can play the same catalog as the steamdeck but cost a lot less, are more portable, and are just better built like the Odin 2 or the Retroid Pocket 5. At this point I am not sure what the use case is for the deck anymore. Every thing that the Deck can do, there are other devices that do it better and for less money.
Serious question. Do ANY of those have track pads? Because so far those seem to be something that only the deck has and I find them to be its most important feature.
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If you try to buy a game on Deck that you couldn't run on Deck, there will be very clear warning about it, one you can't miss. At least it was last time I checked. And to be honest, I'm pretty sure the number of games like that is now almost exclusively consists of competitive shooters, and you wouldn't even thinking of buying it on Deck anyway.
Steam also has like the most generous return policy for video games ever
