Are PC handhelds like Steam Deck really competitors for Switch 2?
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Well, the steam deck sold something like 6 million, and the switch sold 150 million, so....probably not? But on a more anecdotal level I know a lot of people for whom the Steam Deck took the place of their Switch.
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Yes but that group by in large won't be buying a switch 2 for at least a couple of years. $450 per console plus $80 a game is brutal, especially if you're buying for more than one kid.
On the other hand a switch lite can be had for like $100 and used games aren't too expensive either.
The sort of people who bought a switch at launch, after drinking Nintendo NX leaks like kool-aid, aren't as impressed this time around.
Lifetime sales won't be affected nearly as hard, but I don't know that the first year will be as big as the OG switch's.
I think you're definitely right about the adoption speed, people wont be dumping their switches en masse to buy a 2.
The Deck definitely puts a dent in their sales but "i DoNt gEt wHy aNyOnE wOuld bUy a sWitCh" comments on Lemmy show just how skewed the demographics are on here. Its not aimed at us.
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Yes, when combined with the switch 1
I keep retyping what I want to say, but I think my feelings come down to:
- There are 150 million switch 1's in the wild, that's going to continue to be a massive pull for developers when porting new games.
- Many families may already have the switch 1, are the exclusives enough of a pull to encourage those people to upgrade?
- Are there enough switch 2 exclusives to make upgrading worth it?
I do think the switch 2 will do just fine, but I also think there are a lot of people who loved their switch 1 who might look at the games they played, and look at upgrading to a steamdeck instead of the switch 2.
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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).
I picked up a Nintendo Switch because of it being a handheld. I wouldn't have picked one up otherwise, since I had skipped generations of Nintendo consoles preferring Sony due to Nintendo games being too high. But, with the Steam Deck where I don't even need to repurchase "Deck versions" of games the handheld component isn't a selling point of the Switch to me anymore.
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I'd say its more people stating why they prefer the Steam Deck over the Switch than actually believing the Steam Deck would overtake the Switch. Challenge them to a bet and you'd see very few take it.
I think it is people mistaking people's preferences for market share predictions.
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At the time I'm writing this there are 78 comments in this comment section. I haven't read all of them, so let's just assume that every single one of those comments represents a unique individual who believes that the Switch 2 and the Steam Deck (and related) direct competitors.
Given the nature of this platform and community that number is not even remotely surprising. It's also an utterly insignificant number of people.
The overlap between people who would buy a Switch 2 and people who would buy a Steam Deck is a tiny sliver of a Venn diagram. Those are two largely separate categories of gamer.
I think this more people mistaking people expressing their preferences for a system and extrapolating that to meaning market share predictions.
Reword the question to do you believe Steam Deck will overtake Nintendo marketshare and you'd get different answers. Same with if you ask someone why is Linux better than Windows versus do you believe Linux can overtake Windows marketshare?
I find people on the internet have a hard time to distinguishing between people who are expressing preferences and people predicting marketshare shifts. People just see oh this person doesn't like Nintendo or Windows and believes Steam Deck or Linux is going to be more popular.
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No they are not mutually exclusive
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I think this more people mistaking people expressing their preferences for a system and extrapolating that to meaning market share predictions.
Reword the question to do you believe Steam Deck will overtake Nintendo marketshare and you'd get different answers. Same with if you ask someone why is Linux better than Windows versus do you believe Linux can overtake Windows marketshare?
I find people on the internet have a hard time to distinguishing between people who are expressing preferences and people predicting marketshare shifts. People just see oh this person doesn't like Nintendo or Windows and believes Steam Deck or Linux is going to be more popular.
I typed out the below as a response to you, then reread what you wrote. We might be making the same point just with different words. Hopefully I'm not coming across as overly adversarial.
I think most people on social media, including lemmy, exist in an echo chamber that amplifies specific views to the point that it becomes easy to think those views are much more broadly held then they actually are.
Changing the question around like you suggest might help some people realize that, but I also think that there are a lot of people who think that the views expressed in their slice of social media are actually indicative of broader trends.
I also don't think I'm immune to this effect, but I do feel somewhat compelled to point out specific instances of it when I notice it.
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No they are not mutually exclusive
Mine actually emulates switch games.
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Steam also has like the most generous return policy for video games ever
You can even get every achievement in a game, and return it for a full refund, granted you can beat the game in under two hours. Someone did it with resident evil 3 remake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp8a5EjAcGs
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I typed out the below as a response to you, then reread what you wrote. We might be making the same point just with different words. Hopefully I'm not coming across as overly adversarial.
I think most people on social media, including lemmy, exist in an echo chamber that amplifies specific views to the point that it becomes easy to think those views are much more broadly held then they actually are.
Changing the question around like you suggest might help some people realize that, but I also think that there are a lot of people who think that the views expressed in their slice of social media are actually indicative of broader trends.
I also don't think I'm immune to this effect, but I do feel somewhat compelled to point out specific instances of it when I notice it.
What I wrote might have been confusing, but I was trying say that places like lemmy may have view points that express preferences that aren't representative of the mainstream. Like how there may be more positive Linux comments on average per user.
But, that it doesn't necessarily mean that the people expressing those views believe those views to be representative of the mainstream. It is more just them expressing their thoughts.
However, people I found across social media can mistake what are simply opinions as instead general proclamations, and immediately jump to "Oh this person is claiming that their view point is one most people hold. What a bold claim." When all they were saying was I like turtles as opposed to most people like turtles. Which I find media outlets are the most guilty of, since they always look for ways to spin things, and make articles like "Are PC handhelds like Steam Deck really competitors for Switch 2?".
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Wouldn't the switch (locked down) be pants and pc handhelds (anything) be clothing?
Yes? That's the analogy. Did they flip it in the article maybe
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I really truly don’t think so. While there is some overlap, I would never give my 5 yo a steam deck and tell them to just figure it out. And on a steam deck, I’d be really sad to not have any Mario kart, Zelda, etc…
I don’t see the problem with having both- they fill different niches.
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Steamdecks competitors not being right to repair friendly is simply false. I have expanded my storage and upgraded my heat sink on my LeGo and it was super easy. I see people swapping all kinds of components out on their Ally's all the time, and the only mods I ever see from the Steamdeck community are really cheap looking 3d printed snap-on covers and grip protectors. The only time I see someone actually opening up a deck is to upgrade to hall effect joysticks which every other handheld PC just comes with out of the box because it is the industry standard now for everyone except for the Deck. I completely agree with you on right to repair which is precisely why I would recommend any PC over the Deck.
Steam OS is very polished but why would I want to limit my handheld PC to only gaming when with Windows it is capable of so much more. I use my go as a portable laptop for work and then after work I slap on the controllers and play a game. With SteamOS I would lose so much functionality. If you love steam so much you can just run steam in windows and just make it full screen, it's not that hard. Why do you even need a launcher that bad? How hard is it to just click on an icon on a desktop to open your game? Other launchers like Playnite are pretty polished as well.
Steam isn't the only large community with discord channels and modders and developers working together. Have you seen the community that SBC retro handhelds or android handhelds have? Have you seen the onionOS and spruceOS communities? Yes Steam is a much bigger community but that's just cuz they have spent much more on marketing.
The steamOS version of the Legion go doesn't look good, I'll take the original Go any day. But people kept pushing bazzite and now here we are with a native steamOS. I may not like it but I would argue that is definitely Lenovo listening to their community.
You don't lose functionality, you can use SteamOS like a laptop as well. Desktop mode literally puts you in a KDE Plasma desktop environment.
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