Such a weird article from Nintendo Life trying to defend the Switch 2 over the Steam Deck. And it’s so cringe.
First let’s talk about the contention that the Switch 2 has better value because it’s comes with a dock.
Look, I can hook my Steam Deck up to my TV using a USB-C to HDMI adapter and use the Steam Deck itself as a controller. As for a dock itself, sure the official Steam Deck Docking Station costs C$109. However, I can buy a 3rd party docking station off Amazon for C$40. So that’s not much of an argument.
The Switch 2 has a bigger screen that runs at 1080P. That great. But the Steam Deck has an OLED panel which the Switch 2 does not.
In terms of performance, the Switch 2 probably has a better GPU. However, it lacks the Steam Deck’s CPU power. And it only has 12GB of RAM compared to the Steam Deck’s 16GB of RAM. Will games look better on Switch 2? Only if CPU and RAM don’t serve as bottlenecks.
The next thing: Switch 2 is supposedly better because a joy-con can act as a mouse. But they’re really grasping at straws here because I can use an actual Bluetooth mouse with the Steam Deck—one which is more ergonomic too. Oh, and unlike the Switch 2, I can also use a Bluetooth keyboard too with a Steam Deck.
Apparently, the Steam Deck’s touchpad so “too awkward” compared to the Switch 2’s mouse. But you don’t use a mouse in handheld mode—no one does. Touchpads, on the other hand, do work in handheld mode. And I find them much more suitable for FPS and RTS games than an analog joystick.
Now for the article’s final point: the Steam Deck can’t play Switch 2 games. This is actually the most legitimate point. However, it cuts both ways too. Switch 2 can’t play decades of PC games, all which are accessible on Steam Deck. And I should know because I’m able to run literally thousands of games on my Steam Deck—many which don’t even run on Windows anymore without lots of modding.
Can Switch 2 play F.E.A.R. without needing to jailbreak and emulate it? Nope—so in terms of game library, Steam Deck has the win.
But ultimately, this is a silly comparison because the Steam Deck is already three years old at the moment. Of course the Switch 2 will be able to do some things better than Steam Deck. It should—it’s the newer piece of hardware.
However, when the Steam Deck 2 comes out—probably next year—how will the Switch 2 compare? I don’t know, but it will likely have all the advantages that the Steam Deck still has but with giant generational leap in terms of performance.
Right now, if I wanted to, I could get a Lenovo Legion Go S. And it would be leagues better than a Switch 2. It has a AMD Ryzen Z2 Go APU, 32GB of RAM, and 1 TB of storage—which absolutely wrecks the Switch 2 in terms of raw performance.
But the reason I’m holding off is because I think the Steam Deck 2 will be even better.
This doesn’t even touch about many points that makes the Steam Deck just plain better. The games are cheaper. You don’t have to pay for online multiplayer. You have access to multiple storefronts like GOG or itch.io. You can use it as a PC in desktop mode. I can go on.
Now do I think the Switch 2 is totally lacking in value? No. If I had a young child, I’d probably get them a Switch 2 simply because it’s more kid friendly.
However, I’m a full grown man. As for my kid? She’s turning 12-years-old in a few weeks so I think she’ll do just fine with a Steam Deck.
Nintendo life is just being a bit insecure due to constantly hearing about it being a deck measuring contest.
They can play by play all the they want but at the end of the day. I can play games I brought back in 1997 on my steam deck they can barely handle going back one generation to the switch and have to use emulation and a subscription service for a handful of their older systems.
I went from CD of star fleet academy i had in a storage box to a SD card to the steam deck. Installed and running the longest part was setting the key binds in steam input.
They can play by play all the they want but at the end of the day. I can play games I brought back in 1997 on my steam deck they can barely handle going back one generation to the switch and have to use emulation and a subscription service for a handful of their older systems.
I get your point, but to be honest Nintendo couldn’t care less about making it easy or cheap for us to play 1997 games, it doesn’t happen now, and I don’t think it will ever happen, the only reason why they gave some efforts to make Switch 1 games retrocompatible I think is because it would be riots if they didn’t lol.
It is a good argument, but companies don’t care about this, which is sad.
I mean they don’t make it very hard to play their first party Games. Just pay the online free. The main issue is that not all of those games from 1997 are their games. They are just made for their system.
Yeah that is what I said “cheap” too, it doesn’t matter how cheap the NSO is, the games won’t keep in your account if you stop paying, thus they are never really yours.
The best approach was the Virtual Console, but it was dumb that they never respected your previous purchases.
You very politely missed the #1 point… I can already play every single nintendo game I’ve ever bought on my steamdeck. Right now. With no subscription, just simply uploading from my GBA/DS/3DS/Switch to my Steamdeck… Nintendo for reasons completely lost to me refuses to allow that. Like, wth are they even doing over there to not have solved that issue day 1 on the switch.
Nintendo for reasons completely lost to me refuses to allow that.
Because consoles are a net loss in terms of R&D, production, shipping, warranty claims for when they almost always fucked something on the first or second version, etc etc etc. Locking people into the platform means you make all your money on game sales, even 3rd party, indie, and asset flip shovelware makes Nintendo money. It’s the “Walled Garden” method, Apple is shit hot at this. They make an everloving fuck tonne of money from their app store. Even free apps have to pay to have the app hosted on the store servers, and in app purchases are subject to a percentage cut for Apple.
The fact that having digital backups of games/music/media you have purchased is perfectly legal in more than a couple countries, as is emulating, is a thorn in these sociopathic cancers of megacorpic greed’s paw. That’s why Ubisoft is pushing for widespread legal acknowledgement of “game purchases are actually just paying to be granted a revokable for any reason or no reason at all licence.” That’s (partly) why Nintendo is so very aggressive in their litigation of anyone who attempts to make a highly functioning emulator for one of their systems, often with games running better with higher resolution and more options for QoL things. Because instead of trying to sell to as many different systems as possible, they want literally all the money, and they refuse the idea that the little money sacks who buy their shit might actually be legally allowed to run back up copies of their purchases on hardware that wasn’t sold by them. Refuse the idea that the money sacks have rights or deserve to pay for something and actually own it.
You will own nothing, and you will be happy.
You will own nothing, and you will be happy.
I can imagine a dystopian future, where only few hardcopies/offline copies of literature survive. All art/media is only available on the cloud, which is constantly changed as per the agenda of the day. All communication has to go through the cloud for authenticated. The police state is constantly scanning people if they have any sort of external storage device. USB ports are banned from being manufactured. Radio is banned. Few people, the rebels, hoard the last bit of art and music in the form of LPs/cassettes,/canvas but it’s shared among people like contraband.
This can be an awesome movie :P
It varies from game to game, as you’d expect. I can play pokemon multi-player without requiring a link cable, for example, but I can’t speak to other games I haven’t played much (like smash brothers or mariokart). If you mean games in general on the steamdeck, I find gog games and randos like Doom and Diablo multiplayer works just fine.
The trade-off of losing online features when emulating Nintendo games has never really felt that bad mostly because Nintendo’s online capabilities have always been total ass.
With no subscription, just simply uploading from my GBA/DS/3DS/Switch to my Steamdeck… Nintendo for reasons completely lost to me refuses to allow that. Like, wth are they even doing over there to not have solved that issue day 1 on the switch.
Are you honestly asking why Nintendo doesn’t allow you to simply bypass purchasing their console? Really? Why do you think?
Ofc not, I’m asking why they didn’t just release a collection like Sega did, or like Nintendo has done in the past.
Releasing a “classics” collection in the first few months of the switch would have been such an easy move.
Though, contextually (and more importantly), pointing out that the switch 2 doesn’t just have to compete against a similar device with a mammoth array of games… but one with all of nintendo’s games, too.
When is the video game community going to understand there’s no such thing as “better”. The whole “this vs that” or “us vs them” just needs to stop.
Both systems have pros and cons. This article isn’t bashing on the Steam Deck at all, just making the case for what the Switch 2 has going for it.
They say up front that this article is a response to the frankly obnoxious amount of “my gaming platform can beat up your gaming platform” circlejerking that has been going around - which you’re kinda perpetuating.
The Deck does not “obliterate” the Switch 2, and a headline like that makes you part of the problem.
The Deck does not “obliterate” the Switch 2
For me it does. But I know that’s not objective fact. Just my subjective opinion.
The truth is, if what you want is “newest Nintendo games”, well, the Switch 2 is amazing.
I adjusted my mindset on games years ago. There are lots of games that I’d love to play, but because they aren’t on PC, I don’t play them. Because I already have more games than I could ever play. Hype and FOMO are powerful drugs, ones that I’m not immune to. But I am at least resistant to them.
I dislike a lot of things about the Switch 2, but one thing I give them is that now it has arguments to win in several fields to the Deck (which it should be fucking given lol) and I thought Steam Deck users would be a bit less loud… But I think I was wrong… Regardless I eagerly hope for a Steam Deck 2, and hopefully I’ll be able to get it officially in Mexico ffs.
