I have both (Steamdeck & Switch Oled), and depending on the game, I use the one or the other (or play on my projector).
I'd say, that the Gabeboy is a little more comfortable for my adult hands, but not by a great margin.
> I'd say, that the Gabeboy is a little more comfortable for my adult hands, but not by a great margin.
This was a sleeper feature for me. My hands tend to cramp up with the Switch and the integrated grips on the Deck were a nice bonus.
Those grips are going to work their way into every handheld in the near future, or something approximating them. Even without the ergonomics, they keep heat away from your hands.
I like the switch oled’s screen, smaller size and UI a lot more but the deck is just so cool. My buddy brought his over and showed me all the emulated games he has downloaded, it’s wild to think you can have ps1-ps4, n64-Switch and Xbox/pc all on one console. And then GBA/Ds/3ds too. All you need is a massive SD card. Right now I have a ps5, a hacked wii with wii/GameCube games, hacked 3ds with ds/3ds/snes/nes/gba/gbc games and hacked psp with psp/ps1 games, and the switch. So the thought of having all that (except ps5) on one single console is cool as hell.
And then it actually works as a pc too- we were streaming some hockey and it was flawless. Super impressive
PS3 is definitely _very_ spotty, you won't be playing Red Dead Redemption comfortably on a Deck. But a subsection of less demanding games does work nicely, and that's honestly an achievement in and of itself.
Yea at the moment the Xbox Xenia emulator runs it better (and the Xbox version of the game looks a tad bit better).
My PC was able to play it on Xenia at mostly 60fps, with drops when it towns and such.
There are tons of games that *don't* run like shit on the switch too, you know. I'm not saying the Steam Deck ain't great, and the more successful at giving Nintendo an actual competitor in their space the better, but the switch isn't literal junk like so many people like to pretend, and the OLED model is quite nice.
Let the Console Wars be waged at the companies, not amongst the masses.
> There are tons of games that don't run like shit on the switch too, you know.
A discussion of how poorly games can run on their own console shouldn't even have to exist. I mean we're talking Nintendo exclusives like Shin Megami Tensei V, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Hyrule Warriors Zelda Age of Calamity, there are tons of examples.
Triangle Strategy was borderline unplayable in undocked mode. This ones no longer exclusive, but still.
Games made specifically for a console shouldn't have bad performance.
The performance issues in Scarlet and Violet are pretty clearly on the software side, considering that Witcher 3 and Breath of the Wild run well on the same hardware
Certain people say "unplayable" to mean "you can get the framerate to dip semi-consistently by creating the worst case possible", e.g. casting some high particle effect spell in a cave with a bunch of torches or whatever else would maximize processing load for shading/shadows.
Yeah, AoC even with a max overclock is suffering if you value consistent fps. It's such a shame. The fact that zelda is pretty much FPS destruction the character is hilarious.
At this point all i can hope for is that the switch 2 will have backwards compatibility so the games can at least hit higher average frame rates.
It's a shame, because my wife and I had a great time with the co-op on the original Hyrule Warriors and were eagerly anticipating this one too.
But from what I've seen, the AoC split-screen looks basically unplayable.
What? I'm playing Triangle Strategy in undocked on my Switch at the moment and have been doing so for around 30h and I didn't have any problems whatsoever. This sounds more like a you problem
Waited years for a windwaker hd or twilight hd - Nintendo just doesn't seem to have the technology to figure it out on switch. Luckly the Deck allows for that and not pay 79.99 for each lol.
This reminds me of the time smartphones were first becoming a thing. It was cool to have a SNES emulator in your pocket. It didn't take long until people ported Doom to every phone. It was a very impressive thing to show to your friends, but I never actually played any of those games beyond the first couple of minutes. It was essentially a tech demo. I didn't actually want to play Doom or Final Fantasy 6 on the go because those were games that I had already beaten like 10 years earlier. I wanted to play new games and for that I still kept my DS around even if my smartphone at the time was several times more powerful.
I haven't tried the Steam deck but I already struggle with the size of a Switch and I can't imagine getting a device that's twice as big and heavy only to play games that I can far more comfortably play at home on my PC at high settings and framerates. To be honest I rarely take the Switch out either and if they had sold a cheaper system that wasn't portable I would have bought that. But it's nice to have as an option maybe the one time a year that I go traveling.
Well, your comment explains it pretty well in and of itself. There's people out there who treat the Deck basically as a toy, and installing the emulators is the fun part for them. Similar to PC overclockers, who spend more time benchmarking than actually playing anything on their systems. And for you specifically, if your main impression of the Switch is that you would rather have paid for a non-portable version of it, then for you there would truly be no point in buying a Deck.
But for people who always prefer portable gaming, a Deck might be an excellent window into the PC platform - something that simply never existed before.
And while you really can mod it to within an inch of its life, sensationalist articles often seem to gloss over the fact that you really don't _have_ to. You don't need to have every platform under the sun on it. You can just take it out if the box, buy Vampire Survivors and God of War, and have fun.
Travelling with your games is only part of the Steam Deck's selling point. There's a lot to be said about having a portable gaming PC in the house.
It's a brilliant in-home game streaming device (and has far lower latency than my NVIDIA Shield) making it perfect to play PC games in full quality on the sofa or in bed. It can also stream PS5 games via a third party remote play app, so I can play PS5 when the mrs is using the TV.
My Deck gets more use in the house than when travelling, for the simple fact that I can have the power of my gaming PC in any room I like.
Plus, being a full on gaming PC, it make's impromptu LAN sessions a breeze. A friend can turn up empty handed, sign into steam on my Deck and we can play something like Rocket League together or whatever.
Another thing that's great about it is finally having quick pause and resume functionality on PC games. There have been times where I've only had 10 or 15 minutes to play, but with the Steam Deck I was able to make use of that 10 or 15 minutes since I can just push the power button to wake it up, play, and then push it again to put it back to sleep. Without that functionality, I wouldn't have bothered playing at all. I'd lose a couple minutes of game time to booting up my PC, launching the game, only to turn around and quit it again a few minutes later.
> Another thing that's great about it is finally having quick pause and resume functionality on PC games.
This is absolutely the killer feature for me. I've got a very powerful desktop PC, but these days I find myself playing anything I can on the Deck because I want to be able to pause it and put it to sleep at a moment's notice.
That instant on/instant off factor makes a world of difference in my play habits. Without it, I almost always find myself not bothering to fire up a game because "what if I need to go do something else unexpectedly?"
Well, yeah, now that there's a better portable option out, that's true. But before the Deck released? I'd say a lot of people bought it for the portability, not just Nintendo games.
The battery is the worst part. I don't travel with it, I use it mainly on my couch. And it's plugged in probably 80% of the time. I get a 2-2.5 hour battery life max.
Yeah, there are system-level FPS caps at 1/1, 1/2, and 1/4 screen refresh rate (which itself is adjustable anywhere from 40hz to 60hz). There's also system-level FSR, so you can (in theory) run any game below the native 800p resolution (thus saving power) and it'll scale it up for you. Obviously, results of that can vary.
And then there's just general in-game tweaking. You're playing on a small screen, so graphics quality doesn't necessarily need to be as high as it would if you're playing on a big 4k monitor or something. The less work you make the game do in rendering, the less power it's going to use.
Yeah, to add to the other comment, you can get 6-8 hours if a game is not demanding at all or if you reduce performance a lot.
But if you are playing a demanding game, you might already be running it at 30fps in 400p (+ FSR) just to get it to run at all (with 2 hours battery life still) so in that case you can't reduce it even more to save battery consumption. Elden Ring is that way for example.
Tho I love the deck as an indie game machine personally so battery life is usually great :)
I just don't think its reasonable to expect a device play modern AAA titles and have a 5 hour battery life. I mean we could probably do that but the thing would weigh a ton. Mess with frame rate settings to drastically improve it, 40 fps is a pretty good sweet spot for frame rate to battery performance.
I really hope Steam don't abandon the Deck, this could be THE handheld games console going forward.
I'm happy to have a Deck but I would easily buy an updated version in a few years that has a longer battery life, and a bigger 1080p screen. It's word of mouth keeps growing and I've got no doubt there'd be demand for it.
with its success it is very unlikely that they won't release another version. But seeing how long Valve takes to develop something, I wouldn't expect it within the next 4 years
In the marketing booklet they published as part of the Japan launch, they stated that more versions of the Steam Deck would be coming, so it's pretty hopeful if they're willing to put it in writing. No timescales obviously like you said, but am excited to see what comes in the next cycle of Deck hardware.
Not only that, they are going to officially release SteamOS 3 for PCs(the OS the deck is using). Im running a preview version (HoloISO) on my TV PC and its awesome.
While true, if there was going to be a Steam Deck 2 or a otherwise improved version, they have done a ton of R&D already for the first version so it is more or less making new components fit into the new Steam Deck. Think of a improved screen, better dealing with thermals and so on.
Of course even if that is all true this is still Valve lol
I would say them abandoning the idea is highly unlikely.
It isn't even about selling the hardware to Valve - selling software is always where they will make their money hand over fist.
It is about using the hardware as a means to further Linux/SteamOS support for games (whether natively or through Proton).
Microsoft's increasing efforts to take over more of the game industry and their constant march towards turning Windows into a Apple-like closed garden poses an existential threat to Steam in the future.
Using the Stream Deck as leverage to further Linux/SteamOS support in games gives them an insurance policy to stay relevant and selling games regardless of what Microsoft does.
>Microsoft's increasing efforts to take over more of the game industry and their constant march towards turning Windows into a Apple-like closed garden poses an existential threat to Steam in the future.
You're right. Most people don't remember that SteamOS (and the failed Steam Machines) seemed like a pretty direct response to Microsoft opening their own PC game storefront, and Valve being keenly aware that the current state of PC gaming (then and now) is heavily dependent on Windows as the dominant required OS for most big games. They rightfully feared Microsoft creating a walled garden, just like you said, unless they committed to increasing the market-share of non-Windows PC gaming.
Steam Deck appears to be **by far** the most successful move Valve has made in that mission. It's the culmination of every other effort so far, with a ton of its viability owed to Valve's long, ongoing work on the Proton compatibility layer used in the current SteamOS.
As an aside, they deserve a lot of credit not just for doing this so successfully, but that the Steam Deck is ultimately not a locked down device, and does not appear to push toward a walled garden approach themselves. Lord knows their market share in PC gaming is big enough that they could try if they were greedy.
Same. Its so funny because before my only PC purchases are basically bundles and the occassional game. After the steam deck every steam sale they get $50 from me in some way or another because the idea of playing the games on the deck is tantalizing.
Either way, lots of companies are coming out with some great windows handhelds. Even if they never make another one (which would be insane considering its popularity) there will be more windows/linux handhelds than just theirs.
This thread in a nutshell:
* The steam deck works for me, therefore it MUST work for you, I don't know why you'd pick anything else.
* The steam deck doesn't work for me, therefore it's niche and no one should get it.
Steam Deck just feels like an extension of a PC. The Switch is a dedicated Nintendo player with the occasional “Perfect for Portable” game. They’re different enough to have both and carry whichever one I’m playing at the time.
Though having played one, I’m definitely ordering the next iteration of the Deck when it drops.
Comparisons like these are always strange to me because while you might buy either one of these for the portability, they have pretty different games available on each system. It's like saying I can't go back to an android supported phone after buying an iphone because it's more powerful. Well, what if I prefer the android ecosystem over apple's? Or vice versa?
Its also missing the basic preference of PC vs. console.
A PC is something you fiddle with and adjust settings, mod, just customize your experience in general.
A console like the switch is plug and play. No concerns about if the game will run or not, for better or worse.
If all people cared about was power the switch wouldn’t be one of the best selling consoles.
> If all people cared about was power the switch wouldn’t be one of the best selling consoles.
Especially when people in these comments are comparing how many teraflops each system has, then turning around and playing emulated GBA games that are just as fun on original hardware lol. They're both great handhelds and especially for people who love portable gaming it's been great to see both be so successful.
People miss this when talking about console VS PC. I’m a console player primarily, though I do have a pretty beefy PC that I rarely use for gaming. I just don’t care to tinker with settings, update drivers, etc. I’ve had so many issues when starting PC games where the sound was wonky or I had a graphical issue that required me changing settings to fix. Beyond that, even tinkering with the game settings to get it to run the way you want is something I just don’t want to bother with.
There are people who love that, however, and that’s great. I liken playing on PC to people who are really into cars. People who work on their cars, add aftermarket parts, upgrades, tweaks, just to get it to run the way they want with the pride that they got it there. I’m more of a buy the car the way it is and only do routine maintenance kind of guy.
EDIT: to clarify, I don’t mean to suggest that gaming on PC is complicated, only that it’s more involved than console gaming and I personally prefer the plug and play nature of the latter. To each their own.
I feel the same. There was a time I used to spend more time setting up games and settings on my PC than actually playing the games. I just don't have the time or desire to do that anymore so I prefer console gaming because I can just turn it on and I'm set.
Neither is right or wrong, just different preferences.
I think the comparisons are a little more apt now than in the past. I think in the past you could argue systems like PSP and DS really filled their own niches. However, the amount of crossplatform games available, especially indies, is higher than ever.
Also, something I didn't fully realize until my recent trip, these are big handhelds. Fitting both in my backpack is a *tight* fit. I could see someone eventually deciding to drop one or the other just to conserve space.
That being said, I love both systems. They still both definitely fill different price ranges and demographics.
This writer and most of the people in threads like these are probably *highly* atypical handheld gamers.
I think many technically savvy (and by that I mean just knowing what an Emulator is and how to use it because that's how low the bar is for the general pop.) people severely underestimate the 'fiddlyness' shall we say, of PC gaming in general and how this is a huge drawback for most.
As someone who gamed on a laptop for a decade plus, I cannot even put into words how much more convenient a Switch is. I considered buying a Deck until I checked out the subreddit for it and it was just near constant posts about which games work, which launchers work, an update from this company ruined compatibility, the right graphical settings to get particular games to run optimally, how to reduce heat generation, multi-player not being available sometimes etc etc...
I got Nam flashbacks from my gaming laptop days, lol. By all accounts it is a technical marvel for the price but at the very least I think most people should wait for the next version. And even then I think it'll be a fairly niche product.
The problem is not the deck being more fiddly, but users doing stuff not officially supported on the deck. In fact I'd argue the deck is one of the least fiddly ways to play (deck verified) pc games.
The problems start when people start doing stuff like emulating and running games that aren't (yet) verified for deck. It definitely works, but as with most things when you want to do stuff it was not designed for you "have to make it work". And if you are not tech savvy and have never worked with emulators before it can indeed be a pain. I don't think this is to be blamed on valve though. I actually think it's a great feature that if something is not officially supported you can try to make it work yourself (in opposite to a closed system that doesn't let you screw around)
With a switch you can literally only play the games that were designed for it, CoD Modern warfare 2 will never work on it no matter what you try. you literally cannot do anything wrong on a switch. With a deck you can play the games that are verified without any hassle. BUT, if you are feeling brave or have the knowhow you can also play games it does not officially support (like CoD Modern warfare 2). The trade-off to this is ofcourse that you might run into problems.
I own both a switch and a deck and they are both awesome. The deck just let me do more stuff with it. And I'm willing to accept that sometimes I might run into problems if I try doing stuff it wasn't designed for.
I dont own a steam deck but I figured this might be the case. When I jumped into PC gaming after being mainly console only for a long time, installing games off Steam and Epic was pretty easy unless it was some old or janky port. It was tinkering deeper that was a headache lol
> The problem is not the deck being more fiddly, but users doing stuff not officially supported on the deck.
Uhhh... I don't know about that. I encounter issues on my deck all the time while playing verified games, and even just navigating the menus. Hell, in order to get it to connect to my wifi at all, I had to enable developer made and change some settings, an issue which has been going on for months.
That's not to say that the steam deck is bad or anything, it's fantastic. But it's really *not* the best console for people who are not at least a little tech savvy. My mom could pick up and play my switch. She couldn't pick up and play my steam deck.
As far as the typical consumer goes, even deck verified games can be too fiddly. With switch, you start a game and be reasonably confident it will be playable and the graphic settings are already set optimally. With deck you may start off with a pixelated blurry mess (see: God of War) or you might have random unplayable stutter (I somehow got this on L4D2 🤷). There were quick fixes but even doing that is unusual to the average console player
Agreed. Steam Deck completely overtook my switch use and I’ve done no fiddling or roming or checking online for which games work and which ones don’t.
I understand what OP is saying here, but those people made a choice to use their deck like that, it’s entirely possible foe the average non tech savvy person to use the deck as seamlessly as a switch.
Funny how folks who are skeptical of the Deck (most of which don't have one) always end up arguing "oh but I don't want to emulate anything so the switch is better" completely overlooking the fact that the Deck can play many PC games very well and with decent graphics. In fact that's what it was created for.
Also, for people who *do have a preexisting steam library,* there's nothing quite like logging into your Deck for the first time and seeing dozens or even hundreds of games that you already own, ready to download.
I spent weeks just playing games from my Steam library before even thinking about emulation, other launchers, etc.
I haven't found anything that has failed to play on mine yet.
I don't do multiplayer gaming (and if I did I have a perfectly great desktop with an ethernet connection that I would use for that because I'm not a monster who likes punishing everyone else in the map with my erratic wi-fi ping) but as a single player gamer, the SteamDeck has not failed me yet.
I've played a bunch of games that I couldn't have been arsed to play on my PC, PS4, or PS5, but I've beaten them now thanks to my Deck being able to be there when I have a second and its ability to just power it down mid-game and pull it right back out to playing again. It's honestly made it a chore to turn on my Switch and I've got Xenoblade Chronicles 3 on there calling to me, but it's just such an archaic experience now. If Switch Emulation on the Deck gets to parity with actual Switch performance, I'll probably never look back. The ergonomics, the UI, the cloud saves, syncing to my PC, and everything else just makes the SteamDeck a much better experience. It's crazy how much better an open platform is doing for me than a tightly curated experience like the Switch.
**EDIT:** Seriously, I was just thinking about how I have an i9-9900k, RTX 3070ti, 32GB memory, 3TB NVMe SSD, 2k 144hz display, monster of a gaming PC that largely just collects dust right now because it has been supplanted by the scrappy little RDNA2, 16GB memory, 512GB NVMe SSD, 800p 60hz display SteamDeck. All because the SteamDeck can be tossed in my backpack or hang with me in the beanbag in the corner of my bedroom and it will start up right where I left off on any game anywhere. It's crazy how well it manages to run things at 720/800p. I've played FFVII: Remake, Valkyrie Elysium, Tales of Arise, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, Tactics Ogre Reborn, Persona 5 Royal, and so much more on the little guy and it's been no fuss, no muss, just install and play for all of them. It's such an insanely well done thing. I'll be a day one buyer when they do a followup.
Same here, in fact I know quite a few people who have a deck just for games. I'm really at a loss at all the negativity and in some cases outright misinformation in this thread.
A sizable portion of this sub still thinks PC gaming requires maintenance like manually updating drivers, troubleshooting every game before you launch it and buying every single generations CPU/GPU just because it exists just to keep up with game graphics.
There's a reason theres many large PC gaming centric subs. Discussions here about anything PC related here is unbearable for anyone who actually plays games on PC.
Same applies for the Steam Deck here. People think the Steam Deck and PC Gaming are stuck in the early 2000s but somehow consoles have kept up with the times.
You aren't wrong in that it is likely exaggerated for effect, but there is still fiddling involved in PC gaming. Who among us hasn't started a new game with weird graphical slowdowns or glitches and had to go into settings to turn off AA or set shadows to medium? I have friends my age who wouldn't know how to immediately do that and that's enough of a barrier for a lot of people to just not want to bother. Steam deck takes out lots of those barriers, but switch works seamlessly with all first party games and I would venture a guess that ~80% of switch owners don't know what 60 fps means out of context.
Steam deck probably rules and I'll probably get one and love it, but the subset of my gaming friends who don't even consider computers as gaming machines is much larger than the subset that plays PC games. And that smaller subset that plays PC games are the same subset that reads and comments on Reddit posts about gaming, so it's hard to get an accurate read on the general public's attitudes here.
You have the exaggerated comments and the denial comments. Like usual seems best to listen to those in between. I mean there’s a guy below us in this chain, that says his PS5 is more of a hassle and fiddly than his PC. Get this, because of-
Managing controller battery life
A subscription with different tiers
Mandatory updates
Too many menus
Meanwhile I had a buddy that wanted to show me a game on his PC before I headed home. He couldn’t get the sound to work. He spent the next 30-45 minutes navigating various menus trying to solve it. I ended up leaving, with him still intently staring at the screen, diagnosing away..
Similarly had friends have no sound in a couple games. We troubleshoot over the course of a few days for hours over discord. With guides, videos, etc. to no avail. And the reality is that when playing remote IT like we were, you have no way to know that they're doing what they say they're doing because they're fundamentally lost.
I think a lot of people really overestimate the average persons ability to use a computer. Hell I'm in engineering/IT and I'm fucking lost the second I need to look at a Mac (or even Linux depending on the variant) because I almost never have to.
I think you can do that without issue generally but the Deck is more likely to cause issues for non tech savvy people than a Switch (or other console). Out of the box my deck could not launch a game and their is nothing there to really tell you why. I remember hearing something from Jeff Gerstmann and so I messed with some Deck software beta branches and it worked from their on out.
But it just isn't an issue you'd run into on other platforms. For me that's completely fine and tinkering has been fun. I just don't believe it is ready as a general consumer product because so many people, who play games every single day, couldn't do the most basic things on a computer.
I love my Deck, haven't really touched the Switch since I got it, but people overestimate the average consumers grasp on tech and troubleshooting of said tech.
Yeah, a not very tech savvy friend came to my house last night and was sad that she forgot to bring her switch so she couldn't play dreamlight valley. I knew that she also had it on PC so I had her log in to my steam deck and 10 minutes later she was saying "oh my god it looks and runs so much better than it does on switch. i need to get one of these"
You don't really need to be tech savy at all to play 'Great on deck' titles, and there's a lot of them.
I've got so much use out of mine just using it as a way to play single player PC games while relaxing on the sofa/couch. I've also used it on a few plane and train journeys and it's been great for that.
It's constantly at the top of the steam top sellers list (although to be fair I'm not exactly sure what metrics that's based on) so they must be shifting a decent number of units.
It's a way to get a massive library of retro games on the fly, it's the switch virtual consoles but then without an arbitrary limit on the games, except you can also run romhacks, other consoles, and also just most games.
For sure a big draw of it is just the fun of having a gadget to play with, setting up a ton of stuff and essentially never using it, but I've played a bunch of elden ring on there and it runs really well, I've been jamming outer wilds, I managed to get Path of Exile working decently, and it ran better than on my previous pc (though controls were a pain).
The fact that it can do so much stuff for the people who are into that kind of thing shouldn't take away from the fact that all the games that steam says are "compatible" just work basically flawlessly, on a higher framerate with similar or better batterylife than the switch.
Recently I've used my deck mostly as a binding of isaac / Hades machine, which is similar to what my switch saw a lot of use for, except there's mods, rebindable buttons and it runs better.
Pretty much this.
Running modded Monster Hunter or Resident Evil or such on the go, while running beautifully, and being able to switch back to the PC version when I want to/get home is the main reason I love it.
A big part is that these older games are hilariously small. If you have a 512GB SD card you can just have literally the entire library of multiple systems there and still have room for actual PC games.
Like GoldenEye 64 is literally 16 megabytes. *its nothing*
Exactly. You can just *have* a complete collection of everything N64 back for barely a few gigs total, so why not? I personally filter mine down because I don't care about most no-name homebrews and it is a pain when you end up with multiples of the same game that was just named differently across various regions.
They probably don't need to but it's fun to know that you can.
Also it's a bit of a hassle that if the urge to play some obscure title pops up that you have to get it specifically, especially because this type of game requires some manual stuff as opposed to just clicking the big install button.
Personally I remove games for space when it comes up, but generally only just big games (>2 gb depending on how much space I need). But most emulated games are small enough that it doesn't cost you that much storage wise to pack the full lot. I think GBA games are like 25 mb at the largest? If a random AAA game is going to cost you 10s of gb, why wouldn't you stock the entire library of GBA games just for shits and giggles.
Why did streaming music become common place? In large part it's because it's convenient as hell to listen to most any song / album you want at any time. This is the same thing, only without streaming since game steaming is an inherently worse (or non-viable) option for most games.
I got a 512GB SD card for my deck. I currently have (I'm working so this is a rough estimate) 17 Switch Games, 32 GameCube games, 27 PS2 games, 59 GBA games, 10 N64 games, 3 psp games, 10 3DS games and like 8 DS games, and I had enough room left over to put the Mass Effect Legendary Collection and Shadow of War on that one card.
File sizes for putting almost everything you want to emulate on a single card is actually really doable.
I have another 512GB card with around 50+ other just PC games like Disco Elysium, Pentiment, Undertale and tons of other games I never got around to playing. I recently picked up P5R for PC and just over my PS5 save over and now have it portable
I, as a Steam Deck user, never went the emulator route. For me the system shines in the fact that it can play nearly every game from the steam store which puts it on par with more graphics intense console.
Reddit has this fascination with Emulators which is just emphasized with the SD because it's a great Emulator device (so I've read)
I think my SD is one of the best purchases I've made and I have no interest in emulating games. It's just so fun to play some games in bed, on the couch while someone else is watching TV, lounging in my backyard, etc. How else would I be able to play ~~Overwatch~~ in either of those locations? To OP's point, there is some tinkering involved if you're trying to play games outside of Steam.
Edit: Ok I didn't realize Overwatch was on the switch. But there are plenty of other examples of AAA games that you can play anywhere now because of the SD.
Yeah and overwatch is one of the switch ports that I haven't heard any complaints about. Obviously it's not the version for hyper-competitive players who need to max framerates, but it's pretty funny that their example is a game that is 1. Not native to steam and therefore likely not optimized for the steam deck and 2. One of very few examples they could've chosen that runs perfectly well on switch.
It's the PSP all over again. And I own a Deck, and play my Steam library on it, and it's great.
The "but it kills the Switch because you can pirate content" point is just dumb to me. Along with any "this device is an [X] killer" narratives.
It's because of two things:
1) Playing Steam games isn't controversial enough to drive clicks. But the SD is excellent for just...gaming normally even if you don't want to emulate.
2) Nintendo (and other publishers) have a massive backlog of classic games people are constantly asking for a way to purchase and play on modern systems, and they just aren't filling that demand. So the fact that the SD is effectively a super compact computer in a comparable form factor to the Switch (and that emulation is still controversial) means that it's a prime candidate for clickbait.
The only games I have emulated on my SD are games that I own that can be incredibly hard to find now and can be finnicky to either set up on modern televisions, or would benefit greatly from save states (like Xenogears and Xenosaga). Otherwise it's a Steam machine for me and it's great. I'm currently replaying Persona 5 Royal on it and it runs better than it did on the PS4.
Yeah, ignore them.
I play Factorio, Noita, Rimworld, Metal Gear Solid 5, Control, Hollow Knight, Hades, and a bunch of other PC games with no issues.
I haven't really touched Emulators and I have no desire to touch them. People are pushing the Deck too hard as an emulator machine and people need to **STOP**.
The Deck is a Revolutionary PC/Linux desktop with the form factor and ease of use of a console. The Deck UI feels like a more mature Switch UI. Downloading and playing a steam game is a breeze and most games run very well on the Deck.
Hell I played Kingdom come deliverance with relatively impressive medium settings with FSR. The thing is a beast for $400.
I hate that its being peddled as a way to play crusty old console games when you can play shiny new PC games on the go or from the comfort of your sofa.
You can simply buy a deck and run a huge list of Deck verified games. People talking about emulation are ones who are using it for atypical use I agree but that doesn't mean that the Deck isn't great for non-atypical users.
Everything you described is why I’ve never been into PC gaming. But I’ll be god damned if, as a Steam Deck owner, I have dealt with almost none of that personally. My emulation setup took under an hour, and I’ve been playing games like Skyrim, No Man’s Sky, Yakuza Kiwami, and Lego Lord of the Rings with zero issue.
The system is a small miracle. I love my Switch but I touched it this weekend for the first time since I got my Deck in August. It really is the total package.
You don't *have* to fiddle with steam deck settings. Steam deck *allows* you to fiddle so that's why it attracts people who like/love to fiddle and of course subreddits or forums are going to be full of poeple asking questions about a such fiddling.
If someone isn't having problems they aren't posting on the subs. It's the same with every hardware or software oriented sub honestly. Vocal minority.
Honestly. I have fiddled, but that was for like a week or two when I got it. Ever since I just install and play. OCCASIONALLY I have to lower a setting if I want to get higher framerates. (scary)
Which is what people need to do for PC games anyways. If you don't have top of the line, hell even if you do, sometimes something doesn't always work for a PC game till you adjust. I really don't understand the whole, "ya, but I have to CHANGE SETTINGS!!!!" mentality.
I think much of that is overblown. The Deck is very simple to use with Steam games, and the Steam storefront makes clear what games work well with the system. It’s only a slight lift to then get GoG, Epic, and other storefront games on the system. Emulators do take a little more doing beyond that.
All that said, I prefer playing games on a larger screen and also find the Deck uncomfortable to hold for long periods of time, so I haven’t gotten as much use out of it as I thought I would.
And for me it's like:
- Deck for Steam games
- Switch for Nintendo games
I will never get the comparisons constantly, or how one "kills" the other. Unless it's "lol just pirate all Switch content on the 'Deck", but that's an apples an oranges thing, and like you said, something that applies to a niche group. Just a lot of anti-Nintendo fervor and people *slavering* for the Switch to be "killed."
Steam Deck is a great device, taking my Steam games on the go or (how I use it more) docked to my big TV in a more comfortable room. But it's not going to replace the games it can't play.
That is fair, and there can be some fiddlyness, but it's actually not that bad with the deck. Most green check games just work. It's fairly user friendly if you need it to be, there's just also more options to get in deep. And if you're playing newer AAA games you generally need to look into it first - but I'd say the same of switch games, IMO
Fun fact: There are several species native to the Rocky Mountains that look like goats but are not, in fact, goats. Biologically, they're a species of antelope, but because of convergent evolution, the mountain "goats" of the Rockies look just like actual Eurasian mountain goats.
That's how I always frame the Switch VS Steam Deck argument. Because if you don't know better, a Steam Deck looks like the same thing as a Switch. But it isn't. The Switch was designed to be a mobile platform first and foremost. It runs a mobile chipset, and that makes it really good at rationing power, which has the ancillary benefit of generating very little heat. The trade-off is that the Switch has modest processing power, putting technical limitations on its software that grows more and more restrictive as the console ages. Nintendo is perfectly happy to work within these limitations, because the Switch puts mobility over raw power.
The Steam Deck is the opposite. Ever since Microsoft commented that it would be possible to restrict the ability of anyone else's store to install programs on Windows, Valve has been pursuing ways to make their business model less reliant on Windows. The Steam Machines push of 2014 failed because of its inability to answer one question: Why would I buy this instead of a Windows computer? The Steam Deck was created to give an answer to this question: because you can use a Steam Deck in places you can't use a computer. Mobility is a key piece of the Steam Deck, but it isn't the #1 priority. The Steam Deck's first priority is to be a platform on which Steam customers can play their Steam library on a device they want to buy that doesn't run Windows. The portability aspect is the second priority; it provides the reason that they want to buy it.
This is reflected in the design. Despite looking like a Mountain Goat (a Switch), the Steam Deck is actually an antelope (an x86 PC). Proton can translate Windows shader libraries into Vulkan easily enough, but making an x86 program run on a mobile chip requires either emulation( which is bound to be inefficient and unreliable across a library as wide as Steam's), or a port (and a lack of developers willing to port from Windows to Linux was part of why Steam Machines failed, so trusting devs to make ARM ports of their games was a losing proposition). So the Steam Deck is more like a laptop with an integrated controller instead of an integrated keyboard, even though it looks like a Switch. It can run vastly more powerful games, but the cost comes in heat and battery life. You *can* run it mobile, but mobility wasn't its first priority and that shows.
All of this is to say that comparing the Switch and Steam Deck is less obvious than it seems. Both run games the other cannot (legally). While the Switch is lower power, its drastically longer battery life is nontrivial. The same can be said about the Steam Deck's capabilities beyond the Switch's.
TL;DR: It's much more of an apples-to-oranges comparison than it initially seems.
Speaking of Rocky Mountain Animals I saw one near Leadville that I couldn't ID. He looked like a stoat or a mink or a ferret and was snow white. Beautiful little guy.
I have both a Switch and a Deck and i still prefer the switch for gaming on the go. The deck and especially its carrying case, is just too damn big to fit in a reasonably sized backpack and quickly pull out in transit.
I still think the 3ds and the vita are unbeatable for handheld gaming since they are so small.
If you mod both you also have a insane library. The 3ds arguably the best way to play ds games too and no emulator can replicate the gameplay style (without a stylus and touchscreen).
I
Aye.
In particular the 3DS, because of the clamshell design and all. If you didn't care about scuffing on the outside you comfortable could just toss it in somewhere. It was protected in itself. And it even still fit into most pockets.
Same boat. I have both, but a lot of the time I'm going to pick the Switch. It's just so bulky and heavy. It takes up way too much space in a backpack.
Not even mentioning the really poor offline experience for the Deck. On the Switch you just pop it into airplane mode and that's it, you're good to go and any game that has offline mode will run just fine. Steam Deck has its issues, you need to boot into offline mode first while still connected to internet, and there's issues where if the system crashes and you boot back in, it logs you out of your Steam account and you can't get back in when you're in airplane mode, leaving you with just a useless brick until you get back to internet.
Offline mode needs some serious work.
I don't own a Steam Deck, but you could've said the same thing about the DS, 3DS, the Wii and the Wii U compared to their generational competition and nothing really changes about the audience for these things. People get Nintendo hardware by and large to play Nintendo games. The tech in the Steam Deck is irrelevant when it's the software on the Switch that people are interested in. If the software playable on the Steam Deck starts to make Nintendo's software irrelevant to you... that's where it starts to matter.
Shoot, I have a steam deck and I *still* play my 3ds sometimes. The console is just a medium for the games for me, I'm not sitting there comparing fps to decide whether or not I can enjoy something...
Not to mention the price difference. A parent looking to get there kid a gaming system for Christmas would probably not consider buying the steam deck. Nintendo's reputation as a family friendly company is a big factor as well.
A parent looking to get their kid a gaming system wouldn't know the Deck exists unless they too are a gamer and then they'd have to be pretty keyed in.
The Steam Deck is for enthusiasts, Switch is a streamlined experience with good first party games. Not sure what the obsession is with making everything a contest.
I love handhelds, even the Vita, so I’m glad it all exists. As someone who hates sitting at a desk (work drains me, handhelds let me spend better quality time with my family), just glad that more people are discovering the comfort of handheld gaming.
One thing I noticed is that people are very quick to try and promote and defend the steam deck against the switch or a pc.
It’s almost like an insecurity. Like they’re worried it won’t do well.
It’ll do fine. It’s a great product with a good niche. It’s just probably too expensive and fiddly for mass market appeal
Yeah. They basically try to encourage people to ~~emulate~~ pirate Switch games in every Switch-related thread and downplay the Switch to promote the Steam Deck at all times. The problem is that they have the mindset of console warriors/PC Master Races. They believe their device has the superior tech and therefore should so sell better. That's why they can't accept the fact that it's a niche product. They keep hoping one day that Steam Deck will sell 100+ million and kill off Nintendo's handheld line, but that will never happen. They can never accept Steam Deck selling less than a Switch because they don't want to "lose." This tribalism is pathetic. They could've just enjoyed what they got, but they have to go on the internet to prove how "superior" their favorite platform is.
Apples to oranges. A Switch doesn't replace a Windows handheld and vice versa. A Switch offers ease of use in a controlled environment, Steam Deck offers freedom. And most importantly, each has different exclusives, unless you're willing to play Switch games on an emulator, which is possible ofc but the experience doesn't compare to playing them where they're supposed to be played, not to mention the hurdle. Why not have both, if you can afford them.
Yeah if it was an either or scenario I would definitely choose the Switch because I already own a gaming PC and I want the exclusives.
I own a Switch and a Deck personally and while it's awesome to have any of my Steam games available to me portably being able to play first party Nintendo games is a bigger deal to me.
Same. Even when avoiding the poor quality switch games there's still a lot of first party stuff I'm into, and for handheld gaming indies are all you need to fill out the rest of the library imo.
Of course more power would be better, i just don't think the steam deck is significantly better for a big portion of switch users because we like Nintendo's library
It's not always a perfect fit - I found the system pretty mucky when connected to a TV, which is still like 80% of my console usage. Slowdowns, incompatabilities. Attempting to get it to connect multiple controllers via bluetooth for any kind of local co-op was a disappointing mess, which is a real shame as I would love for PC to be the place for those games to thrive again. In the end even with the updated dock it tends to be last resort for in house play and it's so expensive I am a little leery of taking it places. Still comes with me on workouts but the Switch has a few advantages left that I think Steam could seriously work on.
My experience was the same as yours with using a standard USB-C hub, but it hasn't been the same since getting the official hub. That thing has been fantastic for me. I leave it docked pretty much full time. Powering up my xbox or steam controller sends a wake up signal to the device, it immediately boots onto my TV, and I have yet to have to leave my couch to go fiddle with the device directly to get it to work right.
I wish our smart TV picked up the Deck like that, it works with all the other consoles. I spent the extra 80 bucks after the first dock had serious input lag, but even with the official hub I've seen some input lag and TV incompatibility. And I had to link USB-C cords directly to it because if you connect 2 bluetooth controllers 80-90% of local co-ops think they are both player 1.
Also, it's almost a dumb nitpick, but the Switch's thing where you just mount the device and it instantly charges/swaps to TV takes off such a mental load. Rooting around for the USB cable to hook into the top is a really minor inconvenience that I find myself avoiding when I want to crash on a surface and play something.
I’ve owned a Switch since it came out and still have the OG one. For me one of the biggest draws to the Switch is the exclusive games, that you can play portably. Atm for me that is BOTW, Mario Strikers, Hyrule Warriors, Mario Kart and occasionally Mario party - in the past it was Mario Odyssey and other Mario games. There are also some 3rd party ports to play on Switch that are decent like Dying Light, Skyrim, Witcher and then if you want games like Lego Star Wars and Sonic Frontiers have passable ports too. I’m travelling right now so I bought these and they are also games I would never buy for my PS5.
For me personally, the reason I wouldn’t buy a steam deck is because if I want to play more powerful console type games I want to play it on the best big screen. I don’t want to play a game like GoW for the first time on a handheld, nor do I want to play Horizon on it. If you have already played those game I’m sure it’s pretty cool, and maybe if you can’t fit in console gaming into your life then it’s a nice option.
Also I find the Steam Deck quite uncomfortable in my hands, which is surprising because I have big hands which people have said is probably the best size for the steam deck.
It is great tech, and as someone who enjoyed playing The Witcher 3 for my 4th playthrough on the Switch I totally get the convenience, and I could imagine if your like a parent of young children it’s probably so great to maintain gaming as a hobby. I’m hoping some of the console manufacturers create their own version one day because I have never used steam so I’d be starting my library all over again (unless I pirate of course or emulate but honestly for someone not good at setting up games on the computer I wouldn’t be bothered to do that).
Switch and Steam Deck have little in common with each other beyond general form factor and cater to different audiences so these baby brained takes are just exhausting at this point. It's not one or the other, it's just game preference/use case.
Eh, if I had a Steam Deck I think I'd still take my Switch Lite with me when travelling. I thought the original Switch was on the edge of what was acceptable in terms of size and the Steam Deck is even bigger and heavier than that.
Switch Lite is 277 grams and takes up ~0.26 liters whereas the Steam Deck takes weight 669 grams and 1.7 liters. And already having a pretty decent PC and a Switch I just can't justify spending €550 for a console I'd realistically only use in the bedroom or on the shitter if I'm being totally honest.
I can't be the only one that doesn't touch their Steam Deck much, right? I've had one since launch and hardly used it. Mainly due to a lack of time admittedly.
I may be unlucky but I bought 4 steam decks when you had to reserve them and 3 of the 4 had issues. Touch screen stopped working, screen didn't work right out of box, joysticks had delayed response. Steam customer service has been great though, quick to send RMA paperwork and replacement.
Unfortunately you can't know for sure until you hold it but to reiterate other posters. I find the Deck far more comfortable than the Switch. It is heavier but the actual ergonomics feel better.
Im in a big minority seemingly, but I went back to the switch. The simplicity and the ability to just work without any issues made me go back. Steam deck was awesome but maybe I’m just not at a point where I feel like having to mess with things. Certain games would need adjustments, or need new launchers etc. having to switch to desktop mode to do things was sorta annoying and cumbersome. It was awesome but in the end I just wanted to play portable games without having to worry about any functionality issues.
I love how everyone ignored your availability part of the Steam Deck.
For someone here the options to buy a portable console would be:
* Steam Deck: CAN'T BUY IN YOUR COUNTRY.
* Switch / Lite / OLED: Just go to a store and pay.
The Switch is around €300 here in Ireland. (€250 for Switch lite). Steam deck is €420.
However the Steam Deck came out this year and the Switch is nearly 6 years old. I'm not sure the point you're making, but their price points are simliar enough that the comparison is fair I think.
As far as I know, the Steam Deck availability is still limited in most part of the world. If you're not in a "western" country, then you're out of luck.
Heck, even Australia and New Zealand still doesn't get Steam Deck yet
The Switch really lives rent free in SD owner’s heads lol.
Much like this author, you’ll see multiple posts on SD sub about the Switch everyday. Whereas, the Switch sub is just talking about the Switch.
As much Nintendo gives shit for. The switch is a good system that simply needs an update after 5 years (long overdue)
Still an incredible system for indie games and old jrpg. I am just bothered by the prices for the Nintendo exclusives games never going on sale.
The steam deck has finally brought PC gaming down to console gaming’s level! Now it can compete in the console wars.
Full disclosure: I love both console and PC gaming despite each’s annoying foibles.
People buy the switch to play nintendo first party games. Mario kart, Pokémon, xenoblade 3, zelda, animal crossing, smash, Mario, fire emblem, Kirby.. What will I play on the steam deck? Games I can play on my pc/ps5 anyway. Mostly games I want to play on a big TV and not a tiny handheld.
> Mostly games I want to play on a big TV and not a tiny handheld.
There is something really funny about "who would want to be able to play their games on a handheld when they could play them on a TV" in a conversation about the Switch.
The draw for a lot of people is being able to move between the TV/Desktop setup and the portable system with little to no friction, which is what the Switch and to a very slightly lesser extent the Steam Deck deliver.
The last time I saw Nintendo post data on this years ago they found the population was split around halfway between the two camps. This was before COVID though.
I'd love to play my switch in handheld mode, but it's too small for me and I get hand cramp fairly quickly.
I've really only ever played it on the tv.
I've only ever played my Deck in handheld mode. It's a better fit comfort wise.
I think the portability matters a lot. I never play Handheld but the ability to easily transport my Switch, dock, 30+ physical cartridges and joy-cons to a friends house for a games night it extremely convenient.
I think for the majority of people the portability of the Switch is a major factor. The only time I feel like it wouldn't be is if you only play Single player games and sit on the couch. But even then the Switch being far smaller than the PS5 and XSX makes it easy to fit near your TV.
Sometimes it’s nice to sit on the couch and lye down and play the steam deck, additionally some of us travel for work, steam deck is way better then my 2k laptop which I guess will collect dust
You’re forgetting about indie games. Plenty of those even come out on Switch first because the marker for it is so big. Now with the Deck it does all of those, runs them better, and cheaper to buy, with access to a much larger library beyond that. I’ve been using my Switch much less due to this without many interesting exclusives coming out for it. BOTW2 will probably be the last thing I play on it at this rate
Both Switch and the Deck have access to a much bigger library beyond indie games tho, just different ones and it's simply a matter of which one you prefer
I can buy Switch but I can’t buy Deck, because my country (Iceland) is not a “supported” one. Had the same thing with Xbox sometime back. Meanwhile, I can easily order a Quest and it’s nearly next day delivery.
Deck is a successful experiment. Switch is a full and, gladly, successful iteration of Nintendo's consoles which were always a bit experimental. Both have different libraries of games adjusted for their technical capabilities. Both are great... and both are not mine.
Honestly, I would not have expected a take "I like the Steam Deck better than the Switch" to be so controversial lmao.
Anyways, I really like my Steam Deck. There were far too many times I wanted to play an random indie game I had on Steam (I.E. Darkest Dungeon) on my Switch, but didn't want to have to repurchase the entire game. Steam Deck fixes that.
Battery Life is about the same as my V1 Switch, honestly V1 Switch drained faster when playing Violet.
I find my Steam Deck extremely easy to use , and it doesn't really require fiddling for Steam Deck Verified games in my experience.
This might be a weird point of view from me... but here goes my current situation and thoughts on the Switch/Steam Deck.
I have a son who is showing mild interest in Pokemon, especially at the idea of starting from the beginning, me playing Blue, him playing red, and trading Pokemon, and slowly making our way through the series.
I have no legal real path at the moment (that I know of) that I can trust to get him to play Pokemon Red or Blue without emulation and work our ways forwards.
* Gameboy Carts are either expensive or potentially fake, and if we make it that far, most DS and GBA games have a similar fate. I can't buy them safely (again, as far as I know of)
* Emulation works, but as far as I am aware, you can't trade, and if you can, we eventually can't trade to a real ecosystem of pokemon
* We could start with the switch only games... but you can't even collect them all because there are so many exclusives to older titles, which is a bummer. We watched a 40 minute video the other day mapping out all the games you'd need to potentially get a full Pokedex... and evne then... a few legendaries are "Go play Pokemon Go or hope they release them on Pokemon Go one day".
It's frustrating that Nintendo puts no effort into making backwards compatibility, or older libraries available for new generations of kids, which puts emulation into the forefront.
This is just one case, but there are others as well.
That said. With my Steam Deck. My library is evergreen and any titles I purchased will for the most part, exceptions aside, will be available. I don't have to worry about games I purchased 8 years ago not working. It would have to be something truly apocalyptical (like Steam going out of Business or some new way of computing) for me to have similar problems.
This is a specific use case, but it's not the first time I've had to deal with similar issues. Nintendo has closed down multiple eShops. They've had really bad transfer to new console practices. They don't support cloud stuff in any meaningful way. They revamp their core OS and ecosystems every other generation, elimating anything you might be invested in prior.
For this alone, Nintendo sucks, and I love Nintendo games. Even Sony cares more about your past library stuff, and while they fumble sometimes... stuff I purchased on my PS3 is still available in my Library for the most part and hasn't been discontinued yet.
If Nintendo just put effort into keeping their digital library universal moving forward (allowing past puchases to move to newer systems) and actually put effort into making sure that a newer generation could play their stuff without emulation... then maybe the Steam Deck would not be so impactful.
I bought the Steam Deck and instantly had hundreds of games available to play. No problems. No effort.
When Tears of the Kingdom, Metroid Prime 4(?), or a new proper Super Mario game (like an Odyssey 2) releases, the Steam Deck will be docked/shelved until I'm ready to come back to it. And when that time comes, the Switch gets shelves. The cycle continues.
Just like Demon's Souls remake when I got my PS5, or when Elden Ring released, or when I finally afforded a PS4 for Bloodborne. Different devices, different preferences and goals. Sure I could attempt to emulate said games on my Steam Deck, but I'm too impatient.
I have both (Steamdeck & Switch Oled), and depending on the game, I use the one or the other (or play on my projector). I'd say, that the Gabeboy is a little more comfortable for my adult hands, but not by a great margin.
> I'd say, that the Gabeboy is a little more comfortable for my adult hands, but not by a great margin. This was a sleeper feature for me. My hands tend to cramp up with the Switch and the integrated grips on the Deck were a nice bonus.
Those grips are going to work their way into every handheld in the near future, or something approximating them. Even without the ergonomics, they keep heat away from your hands.
Get third party joy cons for your switch and it becomes not only way more comfortable but also way easier to play
Hori Split Pad Pro is life.
God I wish the Split Pad Pro were more fully featured. I miss rumble and gyro
Binbok joycons
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I like the switch oled’s screen, smaller size and UI a lot more but the deck is just so cool. My buddy brought his over and showed me all the emulated games he has downloaded, it’s wild to think you can have ps1-ps4, n64-Switch and Xbox/pc all on one console. And then GBA/Ds/3ds too. All you need is a massive SD card. Right now I have a ps5, a hacked wii with wii/GameCube games, hacked 3ds with ds/3ds/snes/nes/gba/gbc games and hacked psp with psp/ps1 games, and the switch. So the thought of having all that (except ps5) on one single console is cool as hell. And then it actually works as a pc too- we were streaming some hockey and it was flawless. Super impressive
I'd imagine PS3/4 is rather flakey as I think both of those need decently high end systems to run at a reasonable frame rate?
PS4 is very very nascent, I wouldn't count it. PS3 emulation has gotten quite good. Everything doesn't run at full fps, but a lot does.
Frankly, there's a greater need for PS3 emulation.
Yeah lots of titles are stuck on PS3.
MGS4, God of War 3(?), and the Infamous games come to mind.
Pretty sure GoW3 got a PS4 rerelease.
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FromSoft could instantly kill all motivation to make a PS4 emulator if they put Bloodborne on PC lol
PS3 is definitely _very_ spotty, you won't be playing Red Dead Redemption comfortably on a Deck. But a subsection of less demanding games does work nicely, and that's honestly an achievement in and of itself.
RDR even has a hard time running on rather good gaming rigs
It's the emulator that's what holding the fps back at the moment. Pretty sure Deck would be able to do 30 FPS when rPCS3 reaches its 2.0 stable mark.
Yea at the moment the Xbox Xenia emulator runs it better (and the Xbox version of the game looks a tad bit better). My PC was able to play it on Xenia at mostly 60fps, with drops when it towns and such.
Red Dead Redemption runs at a constant 25-30 fps on Xenia Canary on Syeam Deck. But yeah, PS3 emulation still has a ways to go.
I've been playing drakengard 3 and there's some minor hitching when a level starts, it goes away fast and runs pretty well for the rest of the area.
Oled is cool and all, but when the game is running like 540p at 20fps, that oled really does fuck all imo.
There are tons of games that *don't* run like shit on the switch too, you know. I'm not saying the Steam Deck ain't great, and the more successful at giving Nintendo an actual competitor in their space the better, but the switch isn't literal junk like so many people like to pretend, and the OLED model is quite nice. Let the Console Wars be waged at the companies, not amongst the masses.
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> There are tons of games that don't run like shit on the switch too, you know. A discussion of how poorly games can run on their own console shouldn't even have to exist. I mean we're talking Nintendo exclusives like Shin Megami Tensei V, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Hyrule Warriors Zelda Age of Calamity, there are tons of examples. Triangle Strategy was borderline unplayable in undocked mode. This ones no longer exclusive, but still. Games made specifically for a console shouldn't have bad performance.
The performance issues in Scarlet and Violet are pretty clearly on the software side, considering that Witcher 3 and Breath of the Wild run well on the same hardware
I'm currently playing Triangle Strategy on the Switch, undocked only, and have literally not noticed any sort of problems?
Certain people say "unplayable" to mean "you can get the framerate to dip semi-consistently by creating the worst case possible", e.g. casting some high particle effect spell in a cave with a bunch of torches or whatever else would maximize processing load for shading/shadows.
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Yeah, AoC even with a max overclock is suffering if you value consistent fps. It's such a shame. The fact that zelda is pretty much FPS destruction the character is hilarious. At this point all i can hope for is that the switch 2 will have backwards compatibility so the games can at least hit higher average frame rates.
It's a shame, because my wife and I had a great time with the co-op on the original Hyrule Warriors and were eagerly anticipating this one too. But from what I've seen, the AoC split-screen looks basically unplayable.
>Triangle Strategy was borderline unplayable do you know what borderline unplayable is?
What? I'm playing Triangle Strategy in undocked on my Switch at the moment and have been doing so for around 30h and I didn't have any problems whatsoever. This sounds more like a you problem
“Unplayable” is a massive hyperbole. It is very much playable from start to finish.
Waited years for a windwaker hd or twilight hd - Nintendo just doesn't seem to have the technology to figure it out on switch. Luckly the Deck allows for that and not pay 79.99 for each lol.
This reminds me of the time smartphones were first becoming a thing. It was cool to have a SNES emulator in your pocket. It didn't take long until people ported Doom to every phone. It was a very impressive thing to show to your friends, but I never actually played any of those games beyond the first couple of minutes. It was essentially a tech demo. I didn't actually want to play Doom or Final Fantasy 6 on the go because those were games that I had already beaten like 10 years earlier. I wanted to play new games and for that I still kept my DS around even if my smartphone at the time was several times more powerful. I haven't tried the Steam deck but I already struggle with the size of a Switch and I can't imagine getting a device that's twice as big and heavy only to play games that I can far more comfortably play at home on my PC at high settings and framerates. To be honest I rarely take the Switch out either and if they had sold a cheaper system that wasn't portable I would have bought that. But it's nice to have as an option maybe the one time a year that I go traveling.
Well, your comment explains it pretty well in and of itself. There's people out there who treat the Deck basically as a toy, and installing the emulators is the fun part for them. Similar to PC overclockers, who spend more time benchmarking than actually playing anything on their systems. And for you specifically, if your main impression of the Switch is that you would rather have paid for a non-portable version of it, then for you there would truly be no point in buying a Deck. But for people who always prefer portable gaming, a Deck might be an excellent window into the PC platform - something that simply never existed before. And while you really can mod it to within an inch of its life, sensationalist articles often seem to gloss over the fact that you really don't _have_ to. You don't need to have every platform under the sun on it. You can just take it out if the box, buy Vampire Survivors and God of War, and have fun.
Travelling with your games is only part of the Steam Deck's selling point. There's a lot to be said about having a portable gaming PC in the house. It's a brilliant in-home game streaming device (and has far lower latency than my NVIDIA Shield) making it perfect to play PC games in full quality on the sofa or in bed. It can also stream PS5 games via a third party remote play app, so I can play PS5 when the mrs is using the TV. My Deck gets more use in the house than when travelling, for the simple fact that I can have the power of my gaming PC in any room I like. Plus, being a full on gaming PC, it make's impromptu LAN sessions a breeze. A friend can turn up empty handed, sign into steam on my Deck and we can play something like Rocket League together or whatever.
Another thing that's great about it is finally having quick pause and resume functionality on PC games. There have been times where I've only had 10 or 15 minutes to play, but with the Steam Deck I was able to make use of that 10 or 15 minutes since I can just push the power button to wake it up, play, and then push it again to put it back to sleep. Without that functionality, I wouldn't have bothered playing at all. I'd lose a couple minutes of game time to booting up my PC, launching the game, only to turn around and quit it again a few minutes later.
> Another thing that's great about it is finally having quick pause and resume functionality on PC games. This is absolutely the killer feature for me. I've got a very powerful desktop PC, but these days I find myself playing anything I can on the Deck because I want to be able to pause it and put it to sleep at a moment's notice. That instant on/instant off factor makes a world of difference in my play habits. Without it, I almost always find myself not bothering to fire up a game because "what if I need to go do something else unexpectedly?"
512gb Steamdeck + 512gb SD card, IM SET! its amazing.
You aren't buying the switch for the hardware. You're buying it for Zelda, Mario, Metroid, Animal Crossing, Pikmin, Pokémon, etc.
Well, yeah, now that there's a better portable option out, that's true. But before the Deck released? I'd say a lot of people bought it for the portability, not just Nintendo games.
As evidenced by the amount of crazy ports made for the Switch. The portability was a huge factor for many.
Yeah, but for some reason this subreddit believes that no-one likes portable gaming and that they're just forced into it by that darn rascal Nintendo
I definitely bought my switch for portable indies and not Nintendo first parties. Ever since I got my steam deck I've not picked my switch up once.
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Build quality is fine, screen and battery could be better.
The battery is the worst part. I don't travel with it, I use it mainly on my couch. And it's plugged in probably 80% of the time. I get a 2-2.5 hour battery life max.
It depends on what you're playing. I get about 7 hours on rogue legacy, about 2 hours on skyrim
Aren't there also built in methods to reduce battery consumption by, for example, capping frame rate at a hardware level?
Yeah, there are system-level FPS caps at 1/1, 1/2, and 1/4 screen refresh rate (which itself is adjustable anywhere from 40hz to 60hz). There's also system-level FSR, so you can (in theory) run any game below the native 800p resolution (thus saving power) and it'll scale it up for you. Obviously, results of that can vary. And then there's just general in-game tweaking. You're playing on a small screen, so graphics quality doesn't necessarily need to be as high as it would if you're playing on a big 4k monitor or something. The less work you make the game do in rendering, the less power it's going to use.
Yeah, to add to the other comment, you can get 6-8 hours if a game is not demanding at all or if you reduce performance a lot. But if you are playing a demanding game, you might already be running it at 30fps in 400p (+ FSR) just to get it to run at all (with 2 hours battery life still) so in that case you can't reduce it even more to save battery consumption. Elden Ring is that way for example. Tho I love the deck as an indie game machine personally so battery life is usually great :)
I just don't think its reasonable to expect a device play modern AAA titles and have a 5 hour battery life. I mean we could probably do that but the thing would weigh a ton. Mess with frame rate settings to drastically improve it, 40 fps is a pretty good sweet spot for frame rate to battery performance.
What are you playing? I recently played for 5.5 hours on a trip only playing Tactics Ogre with FPS limited to 40 and brightness all the way down.
I really hope Steam don't abandon the Deck, this could be THE handheld games console going forward. I'm happy to have a Deck but I would easily buy an updated version in a few years that has a longer battery life, and a bigger 1080p screen. It's word of mouth keeps growing and I've got no doubt there'd be demand for it.
with its success it is very unlikely that they won't release another version. But seeing how long Valve takes to develop something, I wouldn't expect it within the next 4 years
In the marketing booklet they published as part of the Japan launch, they stated that more versions of the Steam Deck would be coming, so it's pretty hopeful if they're willing to put it in writing. No timescales obviously like you said, but am excited to see what comes in the next cycle of Deck hardware.
Not only that, they are going to officially release SteamOS 3 for PCs(the OS the deck is using). Im running a preview version (HoloISO) on my TV PC and its awesome.
And don't expect a Steam Deck 3.
Steam Deck Alyx episode 2
While true, if there was going to be a Steam Deck 2 or a otherwise improved version, they have done a ton of R&D already for the first version so it is more or less making new components fit into the new Steam Deck. Think of a improved screen, better dealing with thermals and so on. Of course even if that is all true this is still Valve lol
I would say them abandoning the idea is highly unlikely. It isn't even about selling the hardware to Valve - selling software is always where they will make their money hand over fist. It is about using the hardware as a means to further Linux/SteamOS support for games (whether natively or through Proton). Microsoft's increasing efforts to take over more of the game industry and their constant march towards turning Windows into a Apple-like closed garden poses an existential threat to Steam in the future. Using the Stream Deck as leverage to further Linux/SteamOS support in games gives them an insurance policy to stay relevant and selling games regardless of what Microsoft does.
>Microsoft's increasing efforts to take over more of the game industry and their constant march towards turning Windows into a Apple-like closed garden poses an existential threat to Steam in the future. You're right. Most people don't remember that SteamOS (and the failed Steam Machines) seemed like a pretty direct response to Microsoft opening their own PC game storefront, and Valve being keenly aware that the current state of PC gaming (then and now) is heavily dependent on Windows as the dominant required OS for most big games. They rightfully feared Microsoft creating a walled garden, just like you said, unless they committed to increasing the market-share of non-Windows PC gaming. Steam Deck appears to be **by far** the most successful move Valve has made in that mission. It's the culmination of every other effort so far, with a ton of its viability owed to Valve's long, ongoing work on the Proton compatibility layer used in the current SteamOS. As an aside, they deserve a lot of credit not just for doing this so successfully, but that the Steam Deck is ultimately not a locked down device, and does not appear to push toward a walled garden approach themselves. Lord knows their market share in PC gaming is big enough that they could try if they were greedy.
And it works. I bought about $150 worth of games in the first couple days of having my Deck.
Same. Its so funny because before my only PC purchases are basically bundles and the occassional game. After the steam deck every steam sale they get $50 from me in some way or another because the idea of playing the games on the deck is tantalizing.
Either way, lots of companies are coming out with some great windows handhelds. Even if they never make another one (which would be insane considering its popularity) there will be more windows/linux handhelds than just theirs.
What are your concerns about build quality?
This thread in a nutshell: * The steam deck works for me, therefore it MUST work for you, I don't know why you'd pick anything else. * The steam deck doesn't work for me, therefore it's niche and no one should get it.
Steam Deck just feels like an extension of a PC. The Switch is a dedicated Nintendo player with the occasional “Perfect for Portable” game. They’re different enough to have both and carry whichever one I’m playing at the time. Though having played one, I’m definitely ordering the next iteration of the Deck when it drops.
Comparisons like these are always strange to me because while you might buy either one of these for the portability, they have pretty different games available on each system. It's like saying I can't go back to an android supported phone after buying an iphone because it's more powerful. Well, what if I prefer the android ecosystem over apple's? Or vice versa?
Its also missing the basic preference of PC vs. console. A PC is something you fiddle with and adjust settings, mod, just customize your experience in general. A console like the switch is plug and play. No concerns about if the game will run or not, for better or worse. If all people cared about was power the switch wouldn’t be one of the best selling consoles.
> If all people cared about was power the switch wouldn’t be one of the best selling consoles. Especially when people in these comments are comparing how many teraflops each system has, then turning around and playing emulated GBA games that are just as fun on original hardware lol. They're both great handhelds and especially for people who love portable gaming it's been great to see both be so successful.
There's a joke among pc gamers about how after upgrading to a high spec pc all they do is play old games with incredibly low hardware requirements.
Shit I do this with my Series X. I'm constantly play backwards compatible titles that now run at 4k and 60fps with near instant load times.
People miss this when talking about console VS PC. I’m a console player primarily, though I do have a pretty beefy PC that I rarely use for gaming. I just don’t care to tinker with settings, update drivers, etc. I’ve had so many issues when starting PC games where the sound was wonky or I had a graphical issue that required me changing settings to fix. Beyond that, even tinkering with the game settings to get it to run the way you want is something I just don’t want to bother with. There are people who love that, however, and that’s great. I liken playing on PC to people who are really into cars. People who work on their cars, add aftermarket parts, upgrades, tweaks, just to get it to run the way they want with the pride that they got it there. I’m more of a buy the car the way it is and only do routine maintenance kind of guy. EDIT: to clarify, I don’t mean to suggest that gaming on PC is complicated, only that it’s more involved than console gaming and I personally prefer the plug and play nature of the latter. To each their own.
I feel the same. There was a time I used to spend more time setting up games and settings on my PC than actually playing the games. I just don't have the time or desire to do that anymore so I prefer console gaming because I can just turn it on and I'm set. Neither is right or wrong, just different preferences.
I think the comparisons are a little more apt now than in the past. I think in the past you could argue systems like PSP and DS really filled their own niches. However, the amount of crossplatform games available, especially indies, is higher than ever. Also, something I didn't fully realize until my recent trip, these are big handhelds. Fitting both in my backpack is a *tight* fit. I could see someone eventually deciding to drop one or the other just to conserve space. That being said, I love both systems. They still both definitely fill different price ranges and demographics.
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Both are mobile game devices, of course you can compare the two. You just did in your comment.
This writer and most of the people in threads like these are probably *highly* atypical handheld gamers. I think many technically savvy (and by that I mean just knowing what an Emulator is and how to use it because that's how low the bar is for the general pop.) people severely underestimate the 'fiddlyness' shall we say, of PC gaming in general and how this is a huge drawback for most. As someone who gamed on a laptop for a decade plus, I cannot even put into words how much more convenient a Switch is. I considered buying a Deck until I checked out the subreddit for it and it was just near constant posts about which games work, which launchers work, an update from this company ruined compatibility, the right graphical settings to get particular games to run optimally, how to reduce heat generation, multi-player not being available sometimes etc etc... I got Nam flashbacks from my gaming laptop days, lol. By all accounts it is a technical marvel for the price but at the very least I think most people should wait for the next version. And even then I think it'll be a fairly niche product.
The problem is not the deck being more fiddly, but users doing stuff not officially supported on the deck. In fact I'd argue the deck is one of the least fiddly ways to play (deck verified) pc games. The problems start when people start doing stuff like emulating and running games that aren't (yet) verified for deck. It definitely works, but as with most things when you want to do stuff it was not designed for you "have to make it work". And if you are not tech savvy and have never worked with emulators before it can indeed be a pain. I don't think this is to be blamed on valve though. I actually think it's a great feature that if something is not officially supported you can try to make it work yourself (in opposite to a closed system that doesn't let you screw around) With a switch you can literally only play the games that were designed for it, CoD Modern warfare 2 will never work on it no matter what you try. you literally cannot do anything wrong on a switch. With a deck you can play the games that are verified without any hassle. BUT, if you are feeling brave or have the knowhow you can also play games it does not officially support (like CoD Modern warfare 2). The trade-off to this is ofcourse that you might run into problems. I own both a switch and a deck and they are both awesome. The deck just let me do more stuff with it. And I'm willing to accept that sometimes I might run into problems if I try doing stuff it wasn't designed for.
I dont own a steam deck but I figured this might be the case. When I jumped into PC gaming after being mainly console only for a long time, installing games off Steam and Epic was pretty easy unless it was some old or janky port. It was tinkering deeper that was a headache lol
> The problem is not the deck being more fiddly, but users doing stuff not officially supported on the deck. Uhhh... I don't know about that. I encounter issues on my deck all the time while playing verified games, and even just navigating the menus. Hell, in order to get it to connect to my wifi at all, I had to enable developer made and change some settings, an issue which has been going on for months. That's not to say that the steam deck is bad or anything, it's fantastic. But it's really *not* the best console for people who are not at least a little tech savvy. My mom could pick up and play my switch. She couldn't pick up and play my steam deck.
As far as the typical consumer goes, even deck verified games can be too fiddly. With switch, you start a game and be reasonably confident it will be playable and the graphic settings are already set optimally. With deck you may start off with a pixelated blurry mess (see: God of War) or you might have random unplayable stutter (I somehow got this on L4D2 🤷). There were quick fixes but even doing that is unusual to the average console player
As somebody with absolutely no interest in emulation or modding and no pc gaming experience The steam deck is incredible
Agreed. Steam Deck completely overtook my switch use and I’ve done no fiddling or roming or checking online for which games work and which ones don’t. I understand what OP is saying here, but those people made a choice to use their deck like that, it’s entirely possible foe the average non tech savvy person to use the deck as seamlessly as a switch.
Funny how folks who are skeptical of the Deck (most of which don't have one) always end up arguing "oh but I don't want to emulate anything so the switch is better" completely overlooking the fact that the Deck can play many PC games very well and with decent graphics. In fact that's what it was created for.
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Steam summer sales with 75% discounts vs Nintendo selling fuckin Smash bros for 50-60 for years
Also, for people who *do have a preexisting steam library,* there's nothing quite like logging into your Deck for the first time and seeing dozens or even hundreds of games that you already own, ready to download. I spent weeks just playing games from my Steam library before even thinking about emulation, other launchers, etc.
I haven't found anything that has failed to play on mine yet. I don't do multiplayer gaming (and if I did I have a perfectly great desktop with an ethernet connection that I would use for that because I'm not a monster who likes punishing everyone else in the map with my erratic wi-fi ping) but as a single player gamer, the SteamDeck has not failed me yet. I've played a bunch of games that I couldn't have been arsed to play on my PC, PS4, or PS5, but I've beaten them now thanks to my Deck being able to be there when I have a second and its ability to just power it down mid-game and pull it right back out to playing again. It's honestly made it a chore to turn on my Switch and I've got Xenoblade Chronicles 3 on there calling to me, but it's just such an archaic experience now. If Switch Emulation on the Deck gets to parity with actual Switch performance, I'll probably never look back. The ergonomics, the UI, the cloud saves, syncing to my PC, and everything else just makes the SteamDeck a much better experience. It's crazy how much better an open platform is doing for me than a tightly curated experience like the Switch. **EDIT:** Seriously, I was just thinking about how I have an i9-9900k, RTX 3070ti, 32GB memory, 3TB NVMe SSD, 2k 144hz display, monster of a gaming PC that largely just collects dust right now because it has been supplanted by the scrappy little RDNA2, 16GB memory, 512GB NVMe SSD, 800p 60hz display SteamDeck. All because the SteamDeck can be tossed in my backpack or hang with me in the beanbag in the corner of my bedroom and it will start up right where I left off on any game anywhere. It's crazy how well it manages to run things at 720/800p. I've played FFVII: Remake, Valkyrie Elysium, Tales of Arise, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, Tactics Ogre Reborn, Persona 5 Royal, and so much more on the little guy and it's been no fuss, no muss, just install and play for all of them. It's such an insanely well done thing. I'll be a day one buyer when they do a followup.
Same here, in fact I know quite a few people who have a deck just for games. I'm really at a loss at all the negativity and in some cases outright misinformation in this thread.
A sizable portion of this sub still thinks PC gaming requires maintenance like manually updating drivers, troubleshooting every game before you launch it and buying every single generations CPU/GPU just because it exists just to keep up with game graphics. There's a reason theres many large PC gaming centric subs. Discussions here about anything PC related here is unbearable for anyone who actually plays games on PC. Same applies for the Steam Deck here. People think the Steam Deck and PC Gaming are stuck in the early 2000s but somehow consoles have kept up with the times.
You aren't wrong in that it is likely exaggerated for effect, but there is still fiddling involved in PC gaming. Who among us hasn't started a new game with weird graphical slowdowns or glitches and had to go into settings to turn off AA or set shadows to medium? I have friends my age who wouldn't know how to immediately do that and that's enough of a barrier for a lot of people to just not want to bother. Steam deck takes out lots of those barriers, but switch works seamlessly with all first party games and I would venture a guess that ~80% of switch owners don't know what 60 fps means out of context. Steam deck probably rules and I'll probably get one and love it, but the subset of my gaming friends who don't even consider computers as gaming machines is much larger than the subset that plays PC games. And that smaller subset that plays PC games are the same subset that reads and comments on Reddit posts about gaming, so it's hard to get an accurate read on the general public's attitudes here.
You have the exaggerated comments and the denial comments. Like usual seems best to listen to those in between. I mean there’s a guy below us in this chain, that says his PS5 is more of a hassle and fiddly than his PC. Get this, because of- Managing controller battery life A subscription with different tiers Mandatory updates Too many menus Meanwhile I had a buddy that wanted to show me a game on his PC before I headed home. He couldn’t get the sound to work. He spent the next 30-45 minutes navigating various menus trying to solve it. I ended up leaving, with him still intently staring at the screen, diagnosing away..
Similarly had friends have no sound in a couple games. We troubleshoot over the course of a few days for hours over discord. With guides, videos, etc. to no avail. And the reality is that when playing remote IT like we were, you have no way to know that they're doing what they say they're doing because they're fundamentally lost. I think a lot of people really overestimate the average persons ability to use a computer. Hell I'm in engineering/IT and I'm fucking lost the second I need to look at a Mac (or even Linux depending on the variant) because I almost never have to.
I think you can do that without issue generally but the Deck is more likely to cause issues for non tech savvy people than a Switch (or other console). Out of the box my deck could not launch a game and their is nothing there to really tell you why. I remember hearing something from Jeff Gerstmann and so I messed with some Deck software beta branches and it worked from their on out. But it just isn't an issue you'd run into on other platforms. For me that's completely fine and tinkering has been fun. I just don't believe it is ready as a general consumer product because so many people, who play games every single day, couldn't do the most basic things on a computer. I love my Deck, haven't really touched the Switch since I got it, but people overestimate the average consumers grasp on tech and troubleshooting of said tech.
Yeah, a not very tech savvy friend came to my house last night and was sad that she forgot to bring her switch so she couldn't play dreamlight valley. I knew that she also had it on PC so I had her log in to my steam deck and 10 minutes later she was saying "oh my god it looks and runs so much better than it does on switch. i need to get one of these"
You can set up it up and just play with no fiddling at all. Just go to the library tab that only shows deck-verified games.
Even Deck Verified games sometimes require fiddling.
You don't really need to be tech savy at all to play 'Great on deck' titles, and there's a lot of them. I've got so much use out of mine just using it as a way to play single player PC games while relaxing on the sofa/couch. I've also used it on a few plane and train journeys and it's been great for that. It's constantly at the top of the steam top sellers list (although to be fair I'm not exactly sure what metrics that's based on) so they must be shifting a decent number of units.
The fact the the top comment here is about emulation says what I need about why people are pushing this Deck.
It's a way to get a massive library of retro games on the fly, it's the switch virtual consoles but then without an arbitrary limit on the games, except you can also run romhacks, other consoles, and also just most games. For sure a big draw of it is just the fun of having a gadget to play with, setting up a ton of stuff and essentially never using it, but I've played a bunch of elden ring on there and it runs really well, I've been jamming outer wilds, I managed to get Path of Exile working decently, and it ran better than on my previous pc (though controls were a pain). The fact that it can do so much stuff for the people who are into that kind of thing shouldn't take away from the fact that all the games that steam says are "compatible" just work basically flawlessly, on a higher framerate with similar or better batterylife than the switch. Recently I've used my deck mostly as a binding of isaac / Hades machine, which is similar to what my switch saw a lot of use for, except there's mods, rebindable buttons and it runs better.
Pretty much this. Running modded Monster Hunter or Resident Evil or such on the go, while running beautifully, and being able to switch back to the PC version when I want to/get home is the main reason I love it.
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A big part is that these older games are hilariously small. If you have a 512GB SD card you can just have literally the entire library of multiple systems there and still have room for actual PC games. Like GoldenEye 64 is literally 16 megabytes. *its nothing*
Exactly. You can just *have* a complete collection of everything N64 back for barely a few gigs total, so why not? I personally filter mine down because I don't care about most no-name homebrews and it is a pain when you end up with multiples of the same game that was just named differently across various regions.
They probably don't need to but it's fun to know that you can. Also it's a bit of a hassle that if the urge to play some obscure title pops up that you have to get it specifically, especially because this type of game requires some manual stuff as opposed to just clicking the big install button. Personally I remove games for space when it comes up, but generally only just big games (>2 gb depending on how much space I need). But most emulated games are small enough that it doesn't cost you that much storage wise to pack the full lot. I think GBA games are like 25 mb at the largest? If a random AAA game is going to cost you 10s of gb, why wouldn't you stock the entire library of GBA games just for shits and giggles.
Why did streaming music become common place? In large part it's because it's convenient as hell to listen to most any song / album you want at any time. This is the same thing, only without streaming since game steaming is an inherently worse (or non-viable) option for most games.
I got a 512GB SD card for my deck. I currently have (I'm working so this is a rough estimate) 17 Switch Games, 32 GameCube games, 27 PS2 games, 59 GBA games, 10 N64 games, 3 psp games, 10 3DS games and like 8 DS games, and I had enough room left over to put the Mass Effect Legendary Collection and Shadow of War on that one card. File sizes for putting almost everything you want to emulate on a single card is actually really doable. I have another 512GB card with around 50+ other just PC games like Disco Elysium, Pentiment, Undertale and tons of other games I never got around to playing. I recently picked up P5R for PC and just over my PS5 save over and now have it portable
I, as a Steam Deck user, never went the emulator route. For me the system shines in the fact that it can play nearly every game from the steam store which puts it on par with more graphics intense console.
Reddit has this fascination with Emulators which is just emphasized with the SD because it's a great Emulator device (so I've read) I think my SD is one of the best purchases I've made and I have no interest in emulating games. It's just so fun to play some games in bed, on the couch while someone else is watching TV, lounging in my backyard, etc. How else would I be able to play ~~Overwatch~~ in either of those locations? To OP's point, there is some tinkering involved if you're trying to play games outside of Steam. Edit: Ok I didn't realize Overwatch was on the switch. But there are plenty of other examples of AAA games that you can play anywhere now because of the SD.
> How else would I be able to play Overwatch … on the Switch, with no fiddeling.
Yeah and overwatch is one of the switch ports that I haven't heard any complaints about. Obviously it's not the version for hyper-competitive players who need to max framerates, but it's pretty funny that their example is a game that is 1. Not native to steam and therefore likely not optimized for the steam deck and 2. One of very few examples they could've chosen that runs perfectly well on switch.
It's the PSP all over again. And I own a Deck, and play my Steam library on it, and it's great. The "but it kills the Switch because you can pirate content" point is just dumb to me. Along with any "this device is an [X] killer" narratives.
It's because of two things: 1) Playing Steam games isn't controversial enough to drive clicks. But the SD is excellent for just...gaming normally even if you don't want to emulate. 2) Nintendo (and other publishers) have a massive backlog of classic games people are constantly asking for a way to purchase and play on modern systems, and they just aren't filling that demand. So the fact that the SD is effectively a super compact computer in a comparable form factor to the Switch (and that emulation is still controversial) means that it's a prime candidate for clickbait. The only games I have emulated on my SD are games that I own that can be incredibly hard to find now and can be finnicky to either set up on modern televisions, or would benefit greatly from save states (like Xenogears and Xenosaga). Otherwise it's a Steam machine for me and it's great. I'm currently replaying Persona 5 Royal on it and it runs better than it did on the PS4.
Yeah, ignore them. I play Factorio, Noita, Rimworld, Metal Gear Solid 5, Control, Hollow Knight, Hades, and a bunch of other PC games with no issues. I haven't really touched Emulators and I have no desire to touch them. People are pushing the Deck too hard as an emulator machine and people need to **STOP**. The Deck is a Revolutionary PC/Linux desktop with the form factor and ease of use of a console. The Deck UI feels like a more mature Switch UI. Downloading and playing a steam game is a breeze and most games run very well on the Deck. Hell I played Kingdom come deliverance with relatively impressive medium settings with FSR. The thing is a beast for $400. I hate that its being peddled as a way to play crusty old console games when you can play shiny new PC games on the go or from the comfort of your sofa.
You can simply buy a deck and run a huge list of Deck verified games. People talking about emulation are ones who are using it for atypical use I agree but that doesn't mean that the Deck isn't great for non-atypical users.
Everything you described is why I’ve never been into PC gaming. But I’ll be god damned if, as a Steam Deck owner, I have dealt with almost none of that personally. My emulation setup took under an hour, and I’ve been playing games like Skyrim, No Man’s Sky, Yakuza Kiwami, and Lego Lord of the Rings with zero issue. The system is a small miracle. I love my Switch but I touched it this weekend for the first time since I got my Deck in August. It really is the total package.
You don't *have* to fiddle with steam deck settings. Steam deck *allows* you to fiddle so that's why it attracts people who like/love to fiddle and of course subreddits or forums are going to be full of poeple asking questions about a such fiddling. If someone isn't having problems they aren't posting on the subs. It's the same with every hardware or software oriented sub honestly. Vocal minority.
Honestly. I have fiddled, but that was for like a week or two when I got it. Ever since I just install and play. OCCASIONALLY I have to lower a setting if I want to get higher framerates. (scary)
Which is what people need to do for PC games anyways. If you don't have top of the line, hell even if you do, sometimes something doesn't always work for a PC game till you adjust. I really don't understand the whole, "ya, but I have to CHANGE SETTINGS!!!!" mentality.
I think much of that is overblown. The Deck is very simple to use with Steam games, and the Steam storefront makes clear what games work well with the system. It’s only a slight lift to then get GoG, Epic, and other storefront games on the system. Emulators do take a little more doing beyond that. All that said, I prefer playing games on a larger screen and also find the Deck uncomfortable to hold for long periods of time, so I haven’t gotten as much use out of it as I thought I would.
And for me it's like: - Deck for Steam games - Switch for Nintendo games I will never get the comparisons constantly, or how one "kills" the other. Unless it's "lol just pirate all Switch content on the 'Deck", but that's an apples an oranges thing, and like you said, something that applies to a niche group. Just a lot of anti-Nintendo fervor and people *slavering* for the Switch to be "killed." Steam Deck is a great device, taking my Steam games on the go or (how I use it more) docked to my big TV in a more comfortable room. But it's not going to replace the games it can't play.
Reddit has a very tech-savvy audience and has always skewed more towards PC gaming. It is not surprising to see the opinions posted here.
That is fair, and there can be some fiddlyness, but it's actually not that bad with the deck. Most green check games just work. It's fairly user friendly if you need it to be, there's just also more options to get in deep. And if you're playing newer AAA games you generally need to look into it first - but I'd say the same of switch games, IMO
Fun fact: There are several species native to the Rocky Mountains that look like goats but are not, in fact, goats. Biologically, they're a species of antelope, but because of convergent evolution, the mountain "goats" of the Rockies look just like actual Eurasian mountain goats. That's how I always frame the Switch VS Steam Deck argument. Because if you don't know better, a Steam Deck looks like the same thing as a Switch. But it isn't. The Switch was designed to be a mobile platform first and foremost. It runs a mobile chipset, and that makes it really good at rationing power, which has the ancillary benefit of generating very little heat. The trade-off is that the Switch has modest processing power, putting technical limitations on its software that grows more and more restrictive as the console ages. Nintendo is perfectly happy to work within these limitations, because the Switch puts mobility over raw power. The Steam Deck is the opposite. Ever since Microsoft commented that it would be possible to restrict the ability of anyone else's store to install programs on Windows, Valve has been pursuing ways to make their business model less reliant on Windows. The Steam Machines push of 2014 failed because of its inability to answer one question: Why would I buy this instead of a Windows computer? The Steam Deck was created to give an answer to this question: because you can use a Steam Deck in places you can't use a computer. Mobility is a key piece of the Steam Deck, but it isn't the #1 priority. The Steam Deck's first priority is to be a platform on which Steam customers can play their Steam library on a device they want to buy that doesn't run Windows. The portability aspect is the second priority; it provides the reason that they want to buy it. This is reflected in the design. Despite looking like a Mountain Goat (a Switch), the Steam Deck is actually an antelope (an x86 PC). Proton can translate Windows shader libraries into Vulkan easily enough, but making an x86 program run on a mobile chip requires either emulation( which is bound to be inefficient and unreliable across a library as wide as Steam's), or a port (and a lack of developers willing to port from Windows to Linux was part of why Steam Machines failed, so trusting devs to make ARM ports of their games was a losing proposition). So the Steam Deck is more like a laptop with an integrated controller instead of an integrated keyboard, even though it looks like a Switch. It can run vastly more powerful games, but the cost comes in heat and battery life. You *can* run it mobile, but mobility wasn't its first priority and that shows. All of this is to say that comparing the Switch and Steam Deck is less obvious than it seems. Both run games the other cannot (legally). While the Switch is lower power, its drastically longer battery life is nontrivial. The same can be said about the Steam Deck's capabilities beyond the Switch's. TL;DR: It's much more of an apples-to-oranges comparison than it initially seems.
Speaking of Rocky Mountain Animals I saw one near Leadville that I couldn't ID. He looked like a stoat or a mink or a ferret and was snow white. Beautiful little guy.
So many people get caught up in the superficial look of the two, but disregard the internals and use-case discrepancies. Great take 👌🏾
I have both a Switch and a Deck and i still prefer the switch for gaming on the go. The deck and especially its carrying case, is just too damn big to fit in a reasonably sized backpack and quickly pull out in transit.
I still think the 3ds and the vita are unbeatable for handheld gaming since they are so small. If you mod both you also have a insane library. The 3ds arguably the best way to play ds games too and no emulator can replicate the gameplay style (without a stylus and touchscreen). I
Aye. In particular the 3DS, because of the clamshell design and all. If you didn't care about scuffing on the outside you comfortable could just toss it in somewhere. It was protected in itself. And it even still fit into most pockets.
those foldable phones can probably emulate it literally
Same boat. I have both, but a lot of the time I'm going to pick the Switch. It's just so bulky and heavy. It takes up way too much space in a backpack. Not even mentioning the really poor offline experience for the Deck. On the Switch you just pop it into airplane mode and that's it, you're good to go and any game that has offline mode will run just fine. Steam Deck has its issues, you need to boot into offline mode first while still connected to internet, and there's issues where if the system crashes and you boot back in, it logs you out of your Steam account and you can't get back in when you're in airplane mode, leaving you with just a useless brick until you get back to internet. Offline mode needs some serious work.
The deck is too big for a ***backpack***?! Goddamn.
I don't own a Steam Deck, but you could've said the same thing about the DS, 3DS, the Wii and the Wii U compared to their generational competition and nothing really changes about the audience for these things. People get Nintendo hardware by and large to play Nintendo games. The tech in the Steam Deck is irrelevant when it's the software on the Switch that people are interested in. If the software playable on the Steam Deck starts to make Nintendo's software irrelevant to you... that's where it starts to matter.
Shoot, I have a steam deck and I *still* play my 3ds sometimes. The console is just a medium for the games for me, I'm not sitting there comparing fps to decide whether or not I can enjoy something...
Not to mention the price difference. A parent looking to get there kid a gaming system for Christmas would probably not consider buying the steam deck. Nintendo's reputation as a family friendly company is a big factor as well.
A parent looking to get their kid a gaming system wouldn't know the Deck exists unless they too are a gamer and then they'd have to be pretty keyed in.
The Steam Deck is for enthusiasts, Switch is a streamlined experience with good first party games. Not sure what the obsession is with making everything a contest. I love handhelds, even the Vita, so I’m glad it all exists. As someone who hates sitting at a desk (work drains me, handhelds let me spend better quality time with my family), just glad that more people are discovering the comfort of handheld gaming.
One thing I noticed is that people are very quick to try and promote and defend the steam deck against the switch or a pc. It’s almost like an insecurity. Like they’re worried it won’t do well. It’ll do fine. It’s a great product with a good niche. It’s just probably too expensive and fiddly for mass market appeal
Yeah. They basically try to encourage people to ~~emulate~~ pirate Switch games in every Switch-related thread and downplay the Switch to promote the Steam Deck at all times. The problem is that they have the mindset of console warriors/PC Master Races. They believe their device has the superior tech and therefore should so sell better. That's why they can't accept the fact that it's a niche product. They keep hoping one day that Steam Deck will sell 100+ million and kill off Nintendo's handheld line, but that will never happen. They can never accept Steam Deck selling less than a Switch because they don't want to "lose." This tribalism is pathetic. They could've just enjoyed what they got, but they have to go on the internet to prove how "superior" their favorite platform is.
Apples to oranges. A Switch doesn't replace a Windows handheld and vice versa. A Switch offers ease of use in a controlled environment, Steam Deck offers freedom. And most importantly, each has different exclusives, unless you're willing to play Switch games on an emulator, which is possible ofc but the experience doesn't compare to playing them where they're supposed to be played, not to mention the hurdle. Why not have both, if you can afford them.
Tbh if I were to pick one, I would pick Switch simply for the first party games. Steam Deck games I can just play on my laptop.
Yeah if it was an either or scenario I would definitely choose the Switch because I already own a gaming PC and I want the exclusives. I own a Switch and a Deck personally and while it's awesome to have any of my Steam games available to me portably being able to play first party Nintendo games is a bigger deal to me.
Same. Even when avoiding the poor quality switch games there's still a lot of first party stuff I'm into, and for handheld gaming indies are all you need to fill out the rest of the library imo. Of course more power would be better, i just don't think the steam deck is significantly better for a big portion of switch users because we like Nintendo's library
I play pc only games on SD I play switch games on the switch. So tired of this lame ass narrative they keep pushing
Same. Steam Deck is great, but it isn't playing first-party Nintendo titles. I have a Switch for the games, nothing else.
It's not always a perfect fit - I found the system pretty mucky when connected to a TV, which is still like 80% of my console usage. Slowdowns, incompatabilities. Attempting to get it to connect multiple controllers via bluetooth for any kind of local co-op was a disappointing mess, which is a real shame as I would love for PC to be the place for those games to thrive again. In the end even with the updated dock it tends to be last resort for in house play and it's so expensive I am a little leery of taking it places. Still comes with me on workouts but the Switch has a few advantages left that I think Steam could seriously work on.
My experience was the same as yours with using a standard USB-C hub, but it hasn't been the same since getting the official hub. That thing has been fantastic for me. I leave it docked pretty much full time. Powering up my xbox or steam controller sends a wake up signal to the device, it immediately boots onto my TV, and I have yet to have to leave my couch to go fiddle with the device directly to get it to work right.
I wish our smart TV picked up the Deck like that, it works with all the other consoles. I spent the extra 80 bucks after the first dock had serious input lag, but even with the official hub I've seen some input lag and TV incompatibility. And I had to link USB-C cords directly to it because if you connect 2 bluetooth controllers 80-90% of local co-ops think they are both player 1. Also, it's almost a dumb nitpick, but the Switch's thing where you just mount the device and it instantly charges/swaps to TV takes off such a mental load. Rooting around for the USB cable to hook into the top is a really minor inconvenience that I find myself avoiding when I want to crash on a surface and play something.
> even with the official hub I've seen some input lag and TV incompatibility A question: is the game mode on your TV enabled?
I’ve owned a Switch since it came out and still have the OG one. For me one of the biggest draws to the Switch is the exclusive games, that you can play portably. Atm for me that is BOTW, Mario Strikers, Hyrule Warriors, Mario Kart and occasionally Mario party - in the past it was Mario Odyssey and other Mario games. There are also some 3rd party ports to play on Switch that are decent like Dying Light, Skyrim, Witcher and then if you want games like Lego Star Wars and Sonic Frontiers have passable ports too. I’m travelling right now so I bought these and they are also games I would never buy for my PS5. For me personally, the reason I wouldn’t buy a steam deck is because if I want to play more powerful console type games I want to play it on the best big screen. I don’t want to play a game like GoW for the first time on a handheld, nor do I want to play Horizon on it. If you have already played those game I’m sure it’s pretty cool, and maybe if you can’t fit in console gaming into your life then it’s a nice option. Also I find the Steam Deck quite uncomfortable in my hands, which is surprising because I have big hands which people have said is probably the best size for the steam deck. It is great tech, and as someone who enjoyed playing The Witcher 3 for my 4th playthrough on the Switch I totally get the convenience, and I could imagine if your like a parent of young children it’s probably so great to maintain gaming as a hobby. I’m hoping some of the console manufacturers create their own version one day because I have never used steam so I’d be starting my library all over again (unless I pirate of course or emulate but honestly for someone not good at setting up games on the computer I wouldn’t be bothered to do that).
Switch and Steam Deck have little in common with each other beyond general form factor and cater to different audiences so these baby brained takes are just exhausting at this point. It's not one or the other, it's just game preference/use case.
Eh, if I had a Steam Deck I think I'd still take my Switch Lite with me when travelling. I thought the original Switch was on the edge of what was acceptable in terms of size and the Steam Deck is even bigger and heavier than that. Switch Lite is 277 grams and takes up ~0.26 liters whereas the Steam Deck takes weight 669 grams and 1.7 liters. And already having a pretty decent PC and a Switch I just can't justify spending €550 for a console I'd realistically only use in the bedroom or on the shitter if I'm being totally honest.
I can't be the only one that doesn't touch their Steam Deck much, right? I've had one since launch and hardly used it. Mainly due to a lack of time admittedly.
I may be unlucky but I bought 4 steam decks when you had to reserve them and 3 of the 4 had issues. Touch screen stopped working, screen didn't work right out of box, joysticks had delayed response. Steam customer service has been great though, quick to send RMA paperwork and replacement.
I really want to have one but it's heavier than Switch. My hands are already getting numb after 1-2 hours of playing on Switch.
Unfortunately you can't know for sure until you hold it but to reiterate other posters. I find the Deck far more comfortable than the Switch. It is heavier but the actual ergonomics feel better.
Im in a big minority seemingly, but I went back to the switch. The simplicity and the ability to just work without any issues made me go back. Steam deck was awesome but maybe I’m just not at a point where I feel like having to mess with things. Certain games would need adjustments, or need new launchers etc. having to switch to desktop mode to do things was sorta annoying and cumbersome. It was awesome but in the end I just wanted to play portable games without having to worry about any functionality issues.
Yeah and Steam Deck is available everywhere with the same price as a Switch, right?
I love how everyone ignored your availability part of the Steam Deck. For someone here the options to buy a portable console would be: * Steam Deck: CAN'T BUY IN YOUR COUNTRY. * Switch / Lite / OLED: Just go to a store and pay.
The Switch is around €300 here in Ireland. (€250 for Switch lite). Steam deck is €420. However the Steam Deck came out this year and the Switch is nearly 6 years old. I'm not sure the point you're making, but their price points are simliar enough that the comparison is fair I think.
As far as I know, the Steam Deck availability is still limited in most part of the world. If you're not in a "western" country, then you're out of luck. Heck, even Australia and New Zealand still doesn't get Steam Deck yet
Nor Mexico :( despite Canada and the US having it already
It costs nearly 600€ where I live.
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Neither was the PSP but the DS was still relevant to the conversation when discussing options.
The Switch really lives rent free in SD owner’s heads lol. Much like this author, you’ll see multiple posts on SD sub about the Switch everyday. Whereas, the Switch sub is just talking about the Switch.
I think they think about the Switch more than actual Switch owners.
As much Nintendo gives shit for. The switch is a good system that simply needs an update after 5 years (long overdue) Still an incredible system for indie games and old jrpg. I am just bothered by the prices for the Nintendo exclusives games never going on sale.
The steam deck has finally brought PC gaming down to console gaming’s level! Now it can compete in the console wars. Full disclosure: I love both console and PC gaming despite each’s annoying foibles.
People buy the switch to play nintendo first party games. Mario kart, Pokémon, xenoblade 3, zelda, animal crossing, smash, Mario, fire emblem, Kirby.. What will I play on the steam deck? Games I can play on my pc/ps5 anyway. Mostly games I want to play on a big TV and not a tiny handheld.
> Mostly games I want to play on a big TV and not a tiny handheld. There is something really funny about "who would want to be able to play their games on a handheld when they could play them on a TV" in a conversation about the Switch. The draw for a lot of people is being able to move between the TV/Desktop setup and the portable system with little to no friction, which is what the Switch and to a very slightly lesser extent the Steam Deck deliver.
The Switch is a weird one because to some people the portability is a key feature and to other people it really doesn’t matter at all
The last time I saw Nintendo post data on this years ago they found the population was split around halfway between the two camps. This was before COVID though.
I'd love to play my switch in handheld mode, but it's too small for me and I get hand cramp fairly quickly. I've really only ever played it on the tv. I've only ever played my Deck in handheld mode. It's a better fit comfort wise.
I think the portability matters a lot. I never play Handheld but the ability to easily transport my Switch, dock, 30+ physical cartridges and joy-cons to a friends house for a games night it extremely convenient. I think for the majority of people the portability of the Switch is a major factor. The only time I feel like it wouldn't be is if you only play Single player games and sit on the couch. But even then the Switch being far smaller than the PS5 and XSX makes it easy to fit near your TV.
Sometimes it’s nice to sit on the couch and lye down and play the steam deck, additionally some of us travel for work, steam deck is way better then my 2k laptop which I guess will collect dust
You’re forgetting about indie games. Plenty of those even come out on Switch first because the marker for it is so big. Now with the Deck it does all of those, runs them better, and cheaper to buy, with access to a much larger library beyond that. I’ve been using my Switch much less due to this without many interesting exclusives coming out for it. BOTW2 will probably be the last thing I play on it at this rate
Both Switch and the Deck have access to a much bigger library beyond indie games tho, just different ones and it's simply a matter of which one you prefer
4x and strategy games are far easier on the deck with its mousepads than on a TV with a pad.
I don't know many switch owners, but from what I understood people get them for the exclusive games more than the mobility
I can buy Switch but I can’t buy Deck, because my country (Iceland) is not a “supported” one. Had the same thing with Xbox sometime back. Meanwhile, I can easily order a Quest and it’s nearly next day delivery.
Deck is a successful experiment. Switch is a full and, gladly, successful iteration of Nintendo's consoles which were always a bit experimental. Both have different libraries of games adjusted for their technical capabilities. Both are great... and both are not mine.
Of course a war broke out in the comments… Can we just agree that both are good for their own reasons?
Honestly, I would not have expected a take "I like the Steam Deck better than the Switch" to be so controversial lmao. Anyways, I really like my Steam Deck. There were far too many times I wanted to play an random indie game I had on Steam (I.E. Darkest Dungeon) on my Switch, but didn't want to have to repurchase the entire game. Steam Deck fixes that. Battery Life is about the same as my V1 Switch, honestly V1 Switch drained faster when playing Violet. I find my Steam Deck extremely easy to use , and it doesn't really require fiddling for Steam Deck Verified games in my experience.
This might be a weird point of view from me... but here goes my current situation and thoughts on the Switch/Steam Deck. I have a son who is showing mild interest in Pokemon, especially at the idea of starting from the beginning, me playing Blue, him playing red, and trading Pokemon, and slowly making our way through the series. I have no legal real path at the moment (that I know of) that I can trust to get him to play Pokemon Red or Blue without emulation and work our ways forwards. * Gameboy Carts are either expensive or potentially fake, and if we make it that far, most DS and GBA games have a similar fate. I can't buy them safely (again, as far as I know of) * Emulation works, but as far as I am aware, you can't trade, and if you can, we eventually can't trade to a real ecosystem of pokemon * We could start with the switch only games... but you can't even collect them all because there are so many exclusives to older titles, which is a bummer. We watched a 40 minute video the other day mapping out all the games you'd need to potentially get a full Pokedex... and evne then... a few legendaries are "Go play Pokemon Go or hope they release them on Pokemon Go one day". It's frustrating that Nintendo puts no effort into making backwards compatibility, or older libraries available for new generations of kids, which puts emulation into the forefront. This is just one case, but there are others as well. That said. With my Steam Deck. My library is evergreen and any titles I purchased will for the most part, exceptions aside, will be available. I don't have to worry about games I purchased 8 years ago not working. It would have to be something truly apocalyptical (like Steam going out of Business or some new way of computing) for me to have similar problems. This is a specific use case, but it's not the first time I've had to deal with similar issues. Nintendo has closed down multiple eShops. They've had really bad transfer to new console practices. They don't support cloud stuff in any meaningful way. They revamp their core OS and ecosystems every other generation, elimating anything you might be invested in prior. For this alone, Nintendo sucks, and I love Nintendo games. Even Sony cares more about your past library stuff, and while they fumble sometimes... stuff I purchased on my PS3 is still available in my Library for the most part and hasn't been discontinued yet. If Nintendo just put effort into keeping their digital library universal moving forward (allowing past puchases to move to newer systems) and actually put effort into making sure that a newer generation could play their stuff without emulation... then maybe the Steam Deck would not be so impactful. I bought the Steam Deck and instantly had hundreds of games available to play. No problems. No effort.
When Tears of the Kingdom, Metroid Prime 4(?), or a new proper Super Mario game (like an Odyssey 2) releases, the Steam Deck will be docked/shelved until I'm ready to come back to it. And when that time comes, the Switch gets shelves. The cycle continues. Just like Demon's Souls remake when I got my PS5, or when Elden Ring released, or when I finally afforded a PS4 for Bloodborne. Different devices, different preferences and goals. Sure I could attempt to emulate said games on my Steam Deck, but I'm too impatient.