I have a Switch but have bought maybe 3 games for it tops. Where Steam has user reviews, a super simple refund policy, and frequent deep discounts, Nintendo’s purchasing experience is clearly lacking in a customer-friendly approach.
Anyone asking for recommendations for their next gaming device, it’s Steam Deck every time.
And Nintendo insists on never discounting certain games. It’s hard to swallow paying $60 for a 5 year old game that I’m only somewhat interested in. Meanwhile steam will let you buy a game like that for $15 bucks. Half the time you buy it and never play it, but just wanted to get it on sale just in case you do find time to give it a go.
Plus most people will already a pretty stacked library day 1 when they get a steam deck. I wouldn’t have to buy another game for years or even a decade if I were to get a steam deck just based on what I still have on my backlog.
And if I buy a game for the steam deck I can still play it on my pc whenever
Super Mario Run on iOS is 4+ years old and still $9.99 to unlock all of the worlds.
No thanks, Nintendo. Learn from Steam and have some sales.
In my region, a full price switch game costs over $90 including taxes. A measly SIX games would cost more than a steam deck.
Steam Deck plays the games I bought in 2008. That’s a 15 year old library.
Where all my old Xbox/ps games just sit there.
it also plays Nintendo games too
Don’t forget a more user friendly digital download SHARING system as well… We tried “SHARING” a digital download switch game a few times… Steam is far more forgiving. Switch wins on swapping carts however, if you stick to physical purchases for sharing.
Switch has Zelda. It’s the only reason we own a switch and the only game we play on it
Except you can play that same Zelda game on a Steam Deck 60fps with no frame drops, I never play my Switch anymore now that I have my Switch library on my Steam Deck
Ok, so ignoring the legality of emulating switch games (it’s not exactly simple to dump a switch game without owning your own switch), are you seriously going to claim that someone who wants to play Zelda and Mario legally should get a deck? I own both, I love the steam deck, it doesn’t play switch games 60fps, no fuss, it plays an emulated version of cemu breath of the wild at 60 fps and I would tell anyone who wants to play Nintendo games to get a Nintendo console. Heck, PC games which are verified on deck aren’t always great to play on the hardware, especially older games that weren’t made in mind for consoles. The second thing I bring up is how freaking large the steam deck and other pc handhelds are versus something like the switch. If you’re on a couch or hotel room, no big deal, but on the train? In a coach seat on a plane? That size does matter. I pretty much the deck the same places I’d bring a laptop, while the switch is much more a portable bring anywhere type toy. Regardless, this isn’t a battle, I own a console too (gaming pc’s in my opinion are dying out due to cost and lack of exclusives), but buy a steam deck because you want to play pc games, not because you want to play other consoles games - unless you’re someone with the inclination to want to tweak and configure emulators.
Yeah. Nintendo’s lack of refund policies is why I made the switch to SteamDeck.
It’s a computer, so yes. There are more computer games than switch games.
There are more playable/verified games on the Steam Deck than there are switch games.
Both are computers.
One is PC game compatible Linux
The switch runs on a chip that’s used in Android TVs and really old tablets. It could theoretically run way more if Nintendo weren’t so difficult.
The Switch can dual (tri?) boot Linux and Android beside itself
That’s really cool I didn’t know that, thank you
It’s not something they want you to do
Yeah, so is my phone. You know what I mean
People buy a Nintendo console to play Nintendo games. As good as the steam deck is (and I really do want one, but GabeN has decided that Switzerland does not exist), you ain’t going to be playing Splatoon on it.
Not everything has to be a contest. Let people like things that they like.
Maybe not Splatoon specifically, but switch-exclusive single-player games run comparably or better on switch emulators running on the deck
Steam exclusive content of games isn’t a good thing. Moreover, it’s only a limitation of current technology until better hardware and software are developed. The Switch 2 can be better than Steam deck.
Steam exclusive content
great, because nobody asked for that anyways.
The Switch 2 can be better than Steam deck.
and the Deck 2 will be better than the Switch 2. what’s your point?
Deck 2 won’t be better because just like last time people like you overhype it to science fiction. It’s not a PC that plays games, its a Linux based operating system that requires Proton. You people falsely believe Valve is promoting Linux. Hardware specs aren’t good enough and cheap Valve doesn’t want to pay more.
Nintendo has proven to create handheld devices before Valve was a company. Valve doesn’t care about gaming, Nintendo cares about their games.
It’s a shame Nintendo doesn’t care about their customers. I can’t buy games for wii, wiiU or 3DS, but I can still get games I bought in 2005 on steam.
Your point about “it’s not a pc” is strange, what constitutes a pc to you?
Gabe Newell did a whole speech on why Valve is supporting linux and free software. That’s why SteamDeck isn’t locked down. You can install windows, or play games on Linux from gog.com, or Epic Games, itch.io etc etc.
Steam deck is lock down, so many problems would be solved if they opened source it. Proton is a software and not the reason Steam Deck is able to run games. You can install Wine and the same result will happen. No you couldn’t install any Linux, many tried.
Trusting billionaires yes what a great answer. Why not trust Amazon, Facebook and X CEOs aswell. If you think Gable is innocent then you are ignoring the many lawsuits Valve corporations committed.
Oh I get it now, you’re a troll. Never mind. Continue doing your thing.
What the fuck are you even talking about?
Steam deck is lock down, so many problems would be solved if they opened source it.
Oh, you mean like how Nintendo does.
Nintendo cares about their games so much when they come out with a new system they dont even let you purchase games from the previous system anymore. Nintendo lets things die. And they also sell their games at insane prices with lackluster specs. You can buy Doom on the switch that youd be lucky to get 30fps out of for about $60 probably $50 used for the switch. You can buy a used ps4 version of it that will run almost twice as fast for like $10 maybe $15. Mixed in with the fact that nintendo throws people in prison for remixing or even releasing period soundtracks to games many that NINTENDO WONT EVEN LET YOU BUY FROM THEM. Yeah thats a grreeeaaaatt company that cares about their games and community alright. Lmfao also it is hilarious someone defending the Switch talking about subpar hardware my phone can run games at a higher fps than my switch
Great examples. I actually bought Doom (2016) on my Switch on sale for like $40 only to realize it runs at like 20 fps and was totally unplayable. Meanwhile in December I bought every Doom game in a Steam bundle for $15 during the winter sale and they all play 60fps on my Steam Deck OLED. I’m never playing my Switch again
I am still just astounded that they are no longer supporting the Wii and have no option for people who loved it. And so many nontraditional gamers loved it. Causal exercisers loved it. Sports players that wanted something to do on a rainy day loved it. My father, in his late 70s, bought a Wii when it came out. Nursing homes were installing Wiis. It was a system getting people up and moving, it was cheap, and you didn’t have to strap a big thing to your head.
And it’s gone now. You can’t even run it on a lot of TVs without an adapter because it uses component video and they never made an HDMI version. I get that the Wii U failed, but wow is that short-sighted to lose so many new gamers just because your next-gen console didn’t catch on.
Even now, Nintendo could release a Wii like the NES Classic with a limited number of games like Wii Sports and it would be a massive seller.
But they don’t.
I don’t get it.
Steam just killed CSGO with no possible way to replay it. They killed the card game, completely unplayable. VR Alyx is still only exclusively for VR, you have to get a user made mod to play. Proton development is not worked by employees of Valve, Github shows zero contribution from the lazy programmers.
Don’t talk about the small details of Nintendo games when Valve has done nothing for gaming.
Valve literally runs the proton development team lmao. It’s a downstream of wine with lots of additions like dxvk which translates GPU instructions from DX to Vulkan. Without proton, wine would be like a solid several years behind. All open source of course, so feel free to pull request or fork (which many people have).
I would bet actual money that the Switch 2 will be less powerful than the current Steam Deck. Nintendo is really good at making low powered handhelds. The Switch was the first Nintendo handheld that actually used any serious hardware.
The current switch is highly customized for Nintendo’s design and game development. It absolutely struggles to even emulate GameCube games because it doesn’t have enough juice to run anything besides native Switch games.
Steam Deck on the other hand has more than enough power to comfortably emulate Switch games, and easily any older consoles. Additionally, linux has been shown to run both native and windows games better than windows.
Wine Is Not an Emulator. All it has to do is translate APIs for windows only games, not emulate a whole windows machine. It is extremely effective, which allows Linux to provide equivalent if not better game performance.
Valve cares a lot more about making all games accessible to their customers and allowing the community to participate in modding. Nintendo cares a lot more about making AAA games and protecting their IPs. They are almost complete opposites in the video game industry lol.
No one in Valve works in Proton’s development. You can’t lie your way out of GitHub contributions history, you can see it and i can see it.
The top 6 contributors are 4 from codeweavers and 2 from valve my guy.
Even then, codeweavers are their proton development partner, because they actually spent money on a qualified team of wine hackers with years of experience.
What… The fuck have you been smoking? Not a single word you wrote down has any logic to it, you gotta be trying to sound this stupid.
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People say you’ll be able to play games
You don’t play games, it’s a false statement. Linux limitations restrict your access to many games. -
Batteries are better
No, they were average -
Buy anywhere
No, you can’t EU had to wait entire year and Asia is exclusively for a unknown 3rd party market. -
Use as a office PC
Nope, you’re not going anywhere with that tiny screen to type stuff for work. Additional hardware is required. -
Offline play
Still under DRM rules for games and still 30 days requirement to authenticate your ownership.
It’s overhyped jackass
Don’t play games, huh? I must’ve been merely playing with my imagination.
Also, tell me you’ve never even touched a Deck without telling me you’ve never touched a Deck.
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Right. Nintendo would’ve gone the way of Sega but they’re so good at developing software they get people to buy their hardware.
you don’t get it, this is Gabens quest to save all the whales. it’s like a reverse Moby dick.
Uuuh… You could. Single player for the most part, but Splatoon can be played on the Deck.
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People over the age of 16
cough yuzu switch emulator cough
Eyup.
I bought my deck to play all games … including Nintendo games.
The SD had the Switch’s entire library the day it came out, no fucking shit it has thousands more games from the day it came out even ignoring that
How does a deck perform for Steam games though?
Edit - oh fuck me, I was sleepy - I meant Switch games.
Really good! However, battery management is indeed a thing.
Graphically demanding games, such as Phoenix Point, run well but drain battery fast.
Other games that look good, but somehow aren’t as demanding, last much longer.
Battery lasts the longest, of course, with 2D games.
Anyway, here’s my experience with the Steam Deck (not OLED):
- Phoenix Point lasts just 2 hours.
- Civ 6 lasts about 3 hours, more on smaller maps with less NPCs.
- Emulated Breath of the Wild lasts for 4 to 5 hours.
- Hollow Knight nearly 7 hours.
I’m so sorry, I was sleepy when typing out my question. I meant to ask how well it ran Switch games! But thank you for this, I have recently ordered mine and I’ll keep this in mind!
Also have you tried any other games apart from BotW?
Yes I have.
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Mario Wonder runs pretty bad. Frequent stuttering and microfreezing. I’m pretty sure that’ll be fixed in Yuzu at some point but right now it’s “meh”.
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Rayman Legends Definitive Edition runs perfectly. Absolutely flawless. Also very kind on the battery life, lasting nearly as long as Hollow Knight.
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Mariokart 8 Delux runs really smooth as well. Haven’t encountered any real issues, but it’s more demanding on battery life, so expect it to last around like Breath of the Wild.
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Are you using the switch (Yuzu) or Wii U (cemu) version of BOTW? Wondering if I should make the “switch”
Yuzu, but I’ve been told that the Wii U version would’ve been a better option.
Ok if you’re realistic. Low-medium and you’ll have an hour. Drop performance down for 2D games.
Source: I don’t have one yet.
Including *cough* switch games *cough*
Any x86 handheld console always has more games than the Switch including the Switch games
Especially given the fact that Switch emulation is running full speed on x86. So it is literally impossible for the Switch to ever have more games than Steam Deck.
The Switch has worse specs than most phones these days, literally a phone is better. And don’t get me started on the eShop, it’s so bad.
I bought a switch just to play with some simple games with my nephew. The last time i had anything to do with nintendo was the gamecube, and that was more of a joke purchase, but i still liked the quirkyness of it a lot.
It has some cool features, like the controllers are fun (fun, not good) but holy hell, the e-shop… Also i was kinda shocked that they want full price for mario kart, a game from 2014! And the dlc is absolutely predetory. I asked in a Nintendo sub about that and if that is normal for nintendo games, because i genuinely didn’t know. And i caught so much shit for that. People told me that the game is just worth that much becase all the maps and stuff. And the dlc is cheap enough and yada yada. I even felt bad because they all called me a troll who only wants to stirr some shit up.
The other day i was listening to the jimqisition podcast and she talked about marvel’s midnight suns and she absolutely loved the game, except that they put dlc costumes right next to your normal costumes to kinda trick you into buying pixel clothing, and that it’s so gross that she wouldn’t even recommend the game. Nintendo does exactly that, but in a game for children, but still they are somehow the wholesome vidio game company, with one of the most toxic fanboys i have ever seen. The console has trouble running disco Elysium for fucks sake. I absolutely regret giving them money, and that was right before other waaaaay better handheld consoles hit the market.Nintendo (adult) fanboys are so bad. It reminds me of Xbox/PS fanboys a decade ago, only that seems to have thankfully shrunk in prominence because I assume most have grown up. Whereas Nintendo’s has only seemed to grow.
Criticism of any Nintendo game is met with some serious wrath in Nintendo communities. Especially if it’s Zelda.
I like a decent bit of Nintendo stuff. Donkey Kong, Metroid, whatever are fine.
But they’re 2D platformers that aren’t notably better than at least dozens of others that are $20-30 full price and get discounts close to Nintendo’s in terms of dollars off. Ignoring dark vs not, Mario Wonder and Metroid Dread are charging the same as stuff like Elden Ring, Horizon Forbidden West, BG3, etc that are massively larger in scope and investment. Until those things get discounted and Nintendo’s 2D games don’t.
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The same people who scoff at filthy xbox peasants playing at less than 4K @240fps with maxed out graphics are the first to say “graphics aren’t that important” whenever I mention how long in the tooth the switch is.
Never understood why so many people supported the closing of eShop for 3DS, I get the feeling all Nintendo consoles are on a timer at this point. Never had the same feeling with the Deck, which can be easily modified to not be chained to the Steam storefront regardless. You’d have to jailbreak Nintendo consoles to gain any semblance of independent functionality, possibly bricking the darn thing in the process.
Owned both 3DS and Switch to play Pokemon, but I sure as hell ain’t getting whatever’s next.
It always did. 🔫
In a bad way because some are scams and others are so inappropriate that I could get banned in this group for talking about it.
This statement is whack, you’re claiming that the deck, which functions as a glorified handheld laptop, only has more games than a Nintendo handheld because of… scams and inappropriate methods??? Couldn’t be that PC games have existed since 1970s, right?
The ‘steam deck verified’ list the article quotes barely scratches the surface of the amount of games which work, games outside of the steam store function flawlessly 75% of the time with another 15% after 10 minutes of tweaks.
Tell me how this isn’t Valve fault for promoting Trump’s and Alex jones game.
https://litter.catbox.moe/ld52do.png
The games are scams, the games promote nazi propaganda, Valve is corrupt.
Lmao bro it was a NEW game in the NEW game section lmfao this shit is funny.
Lol this dude is in almost every comment thread shitting on Steam. Who hurt you? They make android tablets that have better specs than the switch
It’s worse than that haha. Almost all comments on their profile are Steam Deck / Valve hate on different lemmy posts
Some people choose the weirdest things to get upset about.
Whoa Switch games + non-Switch games = more games than Switch??
steam deck can play switch games?
ohhh okay so its the same as xbox series x can play ps2 games lol
Not really. It’s considerably easier on the steam deck.
And non of the games on Steam are Nintendo games. Sure you’d could use an emulator but the average mainstream casual gamer can’t be bothered to learn how to do that. And Nintendo is a much better known brand than Steam with the casual crowd. Nintendo is not really competing with Steam. Smart phones, which most people already have and the games are free, are a much bigger threat to Nintendo than the Steam Deck.
It clearly underpins your opinion that Nintendo has been trying to enter the mobile market.
What do you mean ‘enter’? Nintendo created one of the first handheld gaming devices that ever existed, and they’ve been known for handheld devices all the way through their history.
@rainynight65 @noctisatrae never heard of the Atari Lynx, have you?
I specifically said ‘one of the first’.
But if you want to be nitpicky, the Lynx was released two months after the original Gameboy.
At this point, anyone with the tech knowledge to have purchased a steam deck can install and run emudeck in like 15 minutes. You just go over to desktop, download and install the single package, put roms in the correct folders, then run the program and everything is already sorted into collections with you can find in the game mode library.
anyone with the tech knowledge
That rules out most of the people.
I install it for my friends and no, “most people” cannot do this because booting into desktop mode and using dolphin sounds easy but its not for folks who just want it to work easy like a switch. Desktop mode is for power users and most console/pc owners are not power users.
Lol, wut? “Steamdeck desktop mode is for power users” starting 2024 with a strong dumbest tech take, I’m going to have to look hard for this to get beat.
Ok but hypothetically, where would someone go for switch roms?
Arrrr, but of course only from the switch games that you have legally purchased and dumped for archival reasons, you scallywag.
I’ve have a switch but steam deck is one of the best purchases I have ever made. It’s such a beautiful device. Not to mention you can change the internal storage and add expandable storage. The biggest advantage steam deck has is its community.
Storage expansion is great. I got a 2tb SSD form AliExpress for ~160CAD and put in a 1tb SD card. I can just install whatever I want and never worry about shaders or games using to much space.
I only have a Switch and want a Steam Deck, I’m not gonna lie, emulation is one of the biggest selling points to me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If you only want to emulate older consoles on-the-go, you can get a hackable switch on eBay for $150, or an Anbernic handheld for less.
I’ve got an anbernic RG351 and it runs everything from early N64 an older flawlessly, good battery life, decent screen and fairly good buttons, really good if you’re out and about because it’s nice and compact. I’ve also got a Steam Deck that does everything else and as a home console.
Even better just get a cheap smartphone and one of those controllers that snap on the back like the kishi or whatever. My very mid range phone runs anything up to 3DS smoothly.
Nintendo has always had competition with superior hardware in the handheld department. The Sega Nomad, WonderSwan, and Playstation Vita were all good examples of that. Nintendo products being much cheaper are always what keeps them ahead with handheld consoles.
Lol much cheaper? A nintendo game from 25 years ago will be resold for $70 today. You can buy Doom on the switch for about $60 and it might catch 30fps you can buy the same game for playstation or xbox for like $15. Have you ever priced their used games for switch? They are laughably expensive. Just checked Doom on nintendos official website is $40 playstation has a sale on it right now for $4 regularly full price for $20. HALF of what Nintendo charges and the game runs probably twice as fast on any system that isnt the switch. Even a USED switch version of doom on gamestop is $33 lmao a USED VERSION. Nintendo sucks
I think she’s talking about the consoles themselves.
Yes and at $300 to $400 for a Deck and roughly the exact same price for a new switch Im saying that the cost is greater long term for Nintendo when you buy their overpriced games that dont even run at full fps. You essentially are paying the same price (maybe what like $100 less if you get the cheaper switch) for a tablet. If you were going to just buy both and set them on the shelf and never buy a game to play on them then maybe I would understand where you are coming from but you have to buy games to play on these or else why would uou buy one? Therefore the cost of the games should also be taken into account when considering the overall price of the system.
They were cheaper options at the time of their release. Nintendo games from the past have only increased in price because of the popularity of the brand that attracts collectors. You are correct about the long-term expenses being cheaper overall but the average person only looks at the price for the console itself and that is about as far as their long-term thinking goes. Fps does not matter as much to the more casual gamer that Nintendo attracts.
The perceived cheapness is what gives Nintendo the advantage.
It doesn’t hurt that they also have a plethora of decent fist party franchises to put on their system. Other companies just get generic third party games that you can also play on PC
The biggest difference between then and now is that the switch was the first handheld that could reasonably play (some) full scale open world console games. Any handheld trying to compete before that effectively needed games specifically developed for it with limited scope. There wasn’t really the vibrant PC indie scene for easy ports to low spec hardware either, and the Switch was also the first to really court those.
These handheld PCs are pretty much the first time there’s competition with a big library to be a real alternative. Before now, it would have also taken partnering with studios to convince them to port games to your device.
This is a valid point I hadnt considered with the timeframe (although vita was a pretty badass system but your point about having to be specially ported to that device stands) but still with the current state of gaming as it exists right now Nintendo should not be selling a copy of a game that came out 8 years ago that runs at exactly half the fps of other systems for exactly double what everyone else has it listed for. They are like the Apple of video gaming.
Nintendo products always being much cheaper
Ehhhh define “much”
but which platform has more shovelware to sift through? Using the Nintendo store feels like swimming through a literal shit hole that someone dumped a tiny bag of gemstones into.
Still only 24 hours in a day
My steam library is massive and I’ve got tons of games I’ll never play.
