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.
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.
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.