Spyke
lemmy.ca

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.

89

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

18

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.

3

In my region, a full price switch game costs over $90 including taxes. A measly SIX games would cost more than a steam deck.

2

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.

24

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.

9
Evotechreply
lemmy.world

Switch has Zelda. It's the only reason we own a switch and the only game we play on it

8
ddittyreply
lemm.ee

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

8

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.

2
lemmy.world

It's a computer, so yes. There are more computer games than switch games.

85

There are more playable/verified games on the Steam Deck than there are switch games.

35
Chriswildreply
lemmy.world

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.

2
lemmy.ca

The Switch can dual (tri?) boot Linux and Android beside itself

6
lemmy.world

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.

71
aalvare2reply
lemmy.world

Maybe not Splatoon specifically, but switch-exclusive single-player games run comparably or better on switch emulators running on the deck

37
firecatreply
kbin.social

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.

-45
Flaimbotreply
lemmy.ml

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?

46
firecatreply
kbin.social

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.

-39
lemmy.ca

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.

24
firecatreply
kbin.social

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.

-22

Oh I get it now, you're a troll. Never mind. Continue doing your thing.

20

Steam deck is lock down, so many problems would be solved if they opened source it.

Oh, you mean like how Nintendo does.

6
BobGnarleyreply
lemm.ee

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

15

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

6

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.

6

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.

-14
mlgreply
lemmy.world

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.

10
firecatreply
kbin.social

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.

-4

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.

6
Tattorackreply
lemmy.world

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.

9
firecatreply
kbin.social
  1. 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.

  2. Batteries are better
    No, they were average

  3. Buy anywhere
    No, you can’t EU had to wait entire year and Asia is exclusively for a unknown 3rd party market.

  4. Use as a office PC
    Nope, you’re not going anywhere with that tiny screen to type stuff for work. Additional hardware is required.

  5. Offline play
    Still under DRM rules for games and still 30 days requirement to authenticate your ownership.

It’s overhyped jackass

-7

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.

8

Right. Nintendo would've gone the way of Sega but they're so good at developing software they get people to buy their hardware.

11

you don't get it, this is Gabens quest to save all the whales. it's like a reverse Moby dick.

4
Tattorackreply
lemmy.world

Uuuh... You could. Single player for the most part, but Splatoon can be played on the Deck.

2
lemmy.myserv.one

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

60
Ashenreply
sh.itjust.works

How does a deck perform for Steam games though?

Edit - oh fuck me, I was sleepy - I meant Switch games.

3
Tattorackreply
lemmy.world

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.
4
Ashenreply
sh.itjust.works

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?

2

Yes I have.

  • 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".

  • Rayman Legends Definitive Edition runs perfectly. Absolutely flawless. Also very kind on the battery life, lasting nearly as long as Hollow Knight.

  • 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.

3
Da_Boomreply
iusearchlinux.fyi

Are you using the switch (Yuzu) or Wii U (cemu) version of BOTW? Wondering if I should make the "switch"

1

Yuzu, but I've been told that the Wii U version would've been a better option.

2

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.

-2
lemmy.ca

Any x86 handheld console always has more games than the Switch including the Switch games

38

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.

8
lemmy.world

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.

28
kbin.social

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.

28
e-raticreply
kbin.social

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.

18

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.

3

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.

6
firecatreply
kbin.social

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.

-21
corus_ktreply
lemmy.world

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.

11

Lmao bro it was a NEW game in the NEW game section lmfao this shit is funny.

5
BobGnarleyreply
lemm.ee

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

8
denastreply
lemm.ee

It's worse than that haha. Almost all comments on their profile are Steam Deck / Valve hate on different lemmy posts

5
lemmy.zip

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.

11

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.

1

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.

10
lemm.ee

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)_/¯

9

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.

2

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.

1
kbin.social

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.

9
GluWureply
lemm.ee

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.

2
replicatreply
lemmy.world

Ok but hypothetically, where would someone go for switch roms?

1
GluWureply

Arrrr, but of course only from the switch games that you have legally purchased and dumped for archival reasons, you scallywag.

3

Still only 24 hours in a day

My steam library is massive and I've got tons of games I'll never play.

8

Apples and oranges comparison. The Steam Deck is PC-adjacent hardware that can access a back catalogue of thousands of games going back twenty years, well before the Steam Deck was even an idea.

The Switch is a game console with its own ecosystem, and it has existed for six years. Games have to be developed specifically for it. The only thing both have in common is that they're handhelds.

5

I barely touch my switch. Only one or two games that were actually worth playing that actually felt smooth. Completely different story with my steam deck.

Will probably sell the switch

2
Fadesreply
lemmy.world

Yes it’s true, and it hits harder when you compare with the online Nintendo store

2
lemmy.ca

The Steam Deck also costs significantly more

-12
Nibodhikareply
lemmy.world

That significantly gets quickly set back by the price of online services and games. An old game on Switch is $60 (I have been wanting to buy a few games for my wife and they never went into any significant discount), meanwhile an old game on Steam is $3, so you can build a much larger library on Steam even if you were starting from scratch.

Long story short:

  • Switch + 1 game = Steam Deck
  • Switch + 2 games = Steam Deck + 10 games
41

That's a really burnt me. I bought one big switch title game and it was pokémon shield. It was 60 bucks and I was so disappointed and there was no return. I got some small indie games, Hades on the switch was really fun. But after getting my steamed deck it just opened up all of the games that are already owned on my computer. Just quickly out classed me switch.

I do wish that I could take the controllers off the side of the steam deck and play it. Kind of like the switch. I know I can just use a wireless controller, but it was just kind of a nice form factor thing.

4

Does it though? The steam deck is still a new console and just got a price drop. The switch has been out for years so it should be cheaper. Also I'm pretty sure the switch costs the same amount when it was a new system

6

A used version of Doom for switch at gamestop is $33. Buying it new from nintendo is $40. Its on sale for playstation right now for $3. Three dollars. Regular price is $20 (also $20 on steam). Also the switch runs it at 720p at 30fps or less and literally any other system it was released on is capable of running it at 1080p at 60fps. Twice the performance, half the cost on other systems than switch. Thats Nintendo for you.

4