this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
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I hope they are able to come down in price over time with more budget models and make Nintendo sweat. Handheld gaming is the ONE area Nintendo has ruled the roost in
Nintendo sweats over homebrew on a discontinued, decade old handheld instead of updating the best selling switch original.
The steamdeck can easily handle switch emulation 1:1 if not better.
They’ve had this coming.
I'll start by saying I absolutely love my steam deck.
But this line of reasoning is silly. No price point will make Nintendo sweat. The steam deck is very popular for any kind of dedicated PC gaming device, and insanely popular for a Linux based device. It's less than a blip on Nintendo's radar screen because it literally doesn't compete in the same space as their product.
If they want to make Nintendo sweat, it needs to natively play Nintendo exclusive titles (impossible) and be a flawless pick up and play user experience with zero tinkering (doable but it is miles away from this, and I don't think they intend for it to get there).
Again. I love my deck. But it does not and does not need to compete with switch. They do and should coexist happily together.
The Nintendo emulator scene is pretty mature tbh though the "Dolphin on Steam" was killed because Valve didn't want the heat from Nintendo.
Yeah it definitely is, which IMO further proves my point. It's not even hard to play Nintendo games (even switch games!) on the deck right now. It's awesome for tinkerers and enthusiasts, but it is in no way impacting Nintendo's sales or bottom line in any appreciable way. People who love emulation don't like to hear this, but the vast, vast majority of people would rather purchase, own, and play games on the platform they were intended to be played on. Switch hardware and software sales numbers are ample evidence of this.
As for Nintendo and their reputation of going after fan game projects, emulators, etc...They kind of have to. I think Nintendo realizes their special sauce is their exclusive characters and games, not their hardware. If they don't defend those trademarks they run the risk of legal challenges to their ownership of them. Whether that justifies them being as aggressive as they are is debatable, but I do think this is the more likely reason they are litigious than the idea that they are actually worried about losing console market share to the Steam Deck.
I heard once that Nintendo has enough cash in the bank to operate for the better part of a century without turning a profit. No clue if it's true, but if it is there may not be much valve (or anyone else) could do to make them nervous. Nintendo seems petty and stubborn enough to operate at a loss for a long time if it means they can keep running things as they like.
I think we need to be realistic that we aren't going to do much better than this price point. Instead, I'm hoping that they can stay at this point and periodically improve the hardware.
This is already a massive discount over the competitors. Price/performance the deck is already miles ahead of all but maybe ninty who could make money if they gave the switch away for free with how much they charge for games