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.
I’m holding off is because I think the Switch 2 will be even better.
You meant steam deck I think?
Thanks for catching that. Edited.
They are both good options ¯_(ツ)_/¯
\
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Steam Deck’s touchpad so “too awkward”…
The Steam Deck touchpads are literally the ONLY modern touchpads I like. Every other mother touchpad is absolutely atrocious because they don’t give you anything like a vibration to tell you your mouse is moving and you actually get some level of confirmation you clicked. It feels like every other touchpad out there now, I swear, requires you to attempt to click on the left/right mouse button (completely integrated into the touchpad) about a billion times before it registers that you clicked once.
Also, if the joycons for switch 2 are anywhere near as uncomfortable to hold for extended periods of time like they are for me with regular switch, I guarantee my hand would start hurting after a couple minutes of the, probably gonna be as responsive as a dead man to a cannonball to the face, mouse mode. The premise of turning what could be one of the worst controller designs I’ve ever seen into a mouse makes my hands bleed in pain without having to ever hold one.
Yeah that’s crazy, the touchpads on the Steam Deck are really good…
Honestly, with the Presentation of Switch 2, i guess they will again have a unsuccessful Generation (Like Wii U, N64 etc) of console ahead of them. That is why i Sold some of my Nintendo Stocks now while the hypetrain is still going. From my Point of View, the Controller-Mouse is a Gimmick at best - i want to Play a Handheld while on the move, Not by sitting at a desk. Not including a Touchpad is a failure. The price Point of both the Games and the console are the other Thing - Sure for the young Generation the usability of a Switch 2 IS good - but all other successful consoles of Nintendo were compelling to other chunks of dthe democraphic too, thats what made them successful - Nintendo DS was popular among students, Wii with families and elderly, NES with everyone below 30. And those demographics certainly care about price,and the Steam BigPicture UI is as good as the the Switch one.
If on the other Hand valve will Take some of the Features of Switch/Switch 2 to Heart with their next SteamDeck Generation i think, it will be widely successful (at least as Long as Gabe will stay with US and No enshittification Happens). Like the detachable Controllers on a SteamDeck2 with integrated Mouse functionality would Work really Well - because, and that is the deciding usability Factor Here - SteamDeck can also bei used as a Workstation. The Switch 2 can’t, so the utility of a Mouse is much larger for a SteamDeck.
Their words:
Those same Joy-Con can also be used for super-accurate, independent motion control, opening up far more possibilities than the Deck’s simple gyro. And in games like Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and Civilization VII, plonking them down on a surface (or thigh!) turns each of them into a fully-functioning computer mouse, far less awkward and clunky than the Deck’s integrated touchpad.
The versatility, modularity, and ease-of-use of the Joy-Con is something that we’ve come to take for granted, but it’s really hard to beat. When they’re not drifting.
You:
The next thing: Switch 2 is supposedly better because a joy-con can act as a mouse.
If that was your whole takeaway from that paragraph, I don’t think you’ll ever see the appeal. Different strokes and all that.
I literally purchased Rog Ally X as a response to how shitty switch 2 felt. I then installed Bazzite os on it.
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.
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.
Yes, we all know handhelds peaked with the DS (I am totally biased).
Before Steam Deck maybe.
Nothing beats the DS Lite’s 15 hour battery life
Outstanding even in today’s days!
Based*
Biased, but absolutely right.
I mean, I also never take a gaming article seriously if it has the word “obliterate” in it.
Valve is definitely a more ethical company but all the console crusading also gets tiresome
Hey, hey? Hey.
Two things can be good at the same time.
Stop it.
Unless you’re ten and in a backyard and you can’t get the other thing because you haven’t mowed enough lawns or whatever and your frontal lobe is too squishy to cope with the FOMO.
But if you’re “a grown man”? Stop it.
If you believe the average person can afford both a Steam Deck and a Switch 2, you’re a person with profound financial privilege who’s missing the point.
That’s not what that says.
It says “if you can’t get the other thing (…) AND your frontal lobe is too squishy to cope with the FOMO”.
I’m not saying you need to buy both, I’m saying if you’re an adult you can live with a cool thing existing and you not needing to have it immediately without resorting to taking sides based on marketing bullet points like a toddler.
Most people need to choose one or the other, so they should be cognizant of what provides the most value for them.
I happen to think Nintendo Life was misrepresenting the actual value of a Switch 2 over a Steam Deck.
If you’re an actual adult, you should appreciate that other adults often have to make financial decisions regarding what they will buy. Especially in this current economy.
Well, let me solve that for you right away.
You need neither of these things. Games and entertainment are not a priority if you’re in a “this current economy” type of situation.
If you already have one, that’s the right one for the money, probably.
Was Nintendo Life “misrepresenting the value of a Switch 2 over a Deck”? Myeeeeh, not sure. I’ll say I agree with their premise that "Steam Deck fans Seriously Underestimating the Switch 2. In somewhat petty, immature ways, as demonstrated very well here. Does the Steam Deck “obliterate the Switch 2”? Probably not, no. I’ll tell you for sure in the summer, I suppose. That said, their listicle is brand shilling as much as this post is.
Are these two things different and have different sets of pros and cons? Yeah, for sure. It’s even a very interesting exercise to look at the weird-ass current handheld landscape, because it’s never been wider, more diverse or move overpopulated. The Switch 2 and the Deck will probably remain the two leading platforms until whatever Sony is considering materializes, but they’re far from alone, from dirt cheap Linux handhelds to ridiculously niche high end laptop-in-a-candybar Windows PCs.
If you want to have a fun thread about that I’m game, but fanboyism from grown men is a pet peeve of mine, and even if I didn’t find it infuriating I’d find it really boring.
For the record, between these two? Tied for price, Switch 2 will be a little more powerful and take advantage of specifically catered software from both first and third parties, has better default inputs, a better screen and support for physical games. Current Deck is flexible, hugely backwards compatible, can be upgraded to a decent OLED screen and has fewer built-in upsells.
And as a bonus round, Windows handhelds scale up to better performance than either, have better compatibility than the Deck and some superior screen and form factor alternatives… but are typically much more expensive and most (but not all) struggle with the Windows interface and lack hardware HDR support.
We good? Because that’s that’s the long and short of it.
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Can you play online with your friends?
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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.
Nintendo’s online capabilities have always been total ass.
I hope this sentiment changes with Mario Kart World… I mean, I wouldn’t still pay for NSO anyway, but they should really focus in improving this.
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
Yeah… that’s… depressingly accurate for the way things are going.
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?
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It does… With emulation… That you can scale up to look better than any of Nintendo’s consoles can do… Plus mods, save states all the benefits of emulation…
But the Steam Deck can have Pokémon, Zelda, etc. thanks to piracy.
I feel like it’s morally correct to pirate Nintendo games at this point.
I feel like it’s morally correct to pirate Nintendo games at this point.
How come?
Because intellectual property is a ridiculous capitalist notion. You can’t own intellect.
Not unless you support slavery, which I am sure you don’t.
Reasonable IP laws are fine if they actually serve the stated purposes but we haven’t had that in generations
You can’t own intellect
That not what IP rights are.
But also, piracy is a copyright issue, not an IP issue.
Piracy isn’t an issue at all, because I don’t recognize or consider either of those concepts.
Lol
Ahh but see. Nintendo has taken down many fan made games for just using their IP. No copyright violations
Which isn’t relevant in a discussion about piracy.
I believe it is. Because it started by saying it’s morally correct to pirate Nintendo products. I think shutting down fan projects is very anti-consumer and an abuse of their power. Which makes it morally correct to pirate their shit
Nintendo is extremely aggresive when it comes to intelectual property.
There is an argument to be made, that IP laws are too powerful giving exlusive rights for shit ton of time (170 years or sth like that)
The law basically is there for corporations to force small companies out of business and keep their monopolies.
So just excersing a law written by the rich for the rich, for them to stay rich is evil. And by extension the company is evil. And by extension, not supporting the company is inherently good.
So just excersing a law written by the rich for the rich, for them to stay rich is evil. And by extension the company is evil.
Ah okay, was just wonder if there was more nuance than “capitalism bad”
I feel like it’s morally correct to pirate Nintendo games at this point.
Nintendo is not getting another red cent from me until the day I die.
Imagine if people were this principled about things that actually mattered…
You can be principled on multiple fronts at the same time, food for thought…
Not need to argue, they have entirety difference audiences and that’s ok.
Switch 2 can’t play decades of PC games, all which are accessible on Switch.
I think you meant “which are accessible on Steam Deck”
I don’t think these systems are comparable. They serve different markets.
Gamers still can’t grasp that the Nintendo switch is for 6-12 year olds who wants to play Mario cart. And is marketed at their parents and grandparents.
You are seriously underestimating Nintendo’s demographic. So many adults are their customers.
They are that’s true, but it’s because their parents bought it for them when they were young.
Yeah and that’s why they priced it so much higher than the previous version. Switch 1 has shown that parents are willing to pay a ridiculous price just so they can get the Switch for Christmas. I bet most of the people who bought a Switch from a scalper was a parent.
The switch and switch 2 are better than all handheld PCs at present for one simple reason: it’s much simpler to obtain and use for the average consumer. That’s it. Average consumers don’t give a shit about teraflops and fps as long as it’s easy to use and still looks good.
Except I couldn’t give a fuck about Nintendo games. Never played ‘em and probably won’t ever want to either.
Said the not average consumer. Proving my point for me
You should give some of them a try. Nintendo is a shitty company sometimes, but some of their games speak for themselves - stuff like The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Mario Kart 8 DX, Ring Fit Adventure, Super Metroid, Donkey Kong Country, Earthbound, etc. are all legendary for a reason.
I’ve gotten thousands of hours of play out of every Nintendo system I’ve ever owned (including the WiiU), because the games are just that damn good.
That said I love the Steam Deck as well, but it scratches a different itch. It has a much bigger library of awesome games, and it’s less restrictive than Nintendo’s walled garden approach to gaming.
TLDR; Steam Deck is great, but Switch 2 will be great as well. Gamers win with both choices.
Idk if id include ring fit adventure in that list but yeah
Also don’t need fuckin anchor arms to carry it around
If only other handheld games consoles (that aren’t “retro” ones) tꝏk lightweightedness into consideration !
ꝏꝏꝏꝏꝏꝏk
