Steam Deck Vs Switch 2 – An Artificial Clash

The Switch 2 has been extremely successful in its first week, just like everybody who was paying attention knew it would. I have questions about its long-term prospects but, believe me, it’s never going to be a dud.

It’s never enough to have your company do well. You have to compare it to other, less hugely successful devices. I’ve seen a lot of conversation around the Steam Deck in the last seven days. And people have used the Stam Deck to attack the Switch. And it’s all completely and utterly artificial.

I own a Steam Deck. I would go with that over the Switch every single time. It offers me freedom, it gives me the chance to tinker, it is as feature heavy as I need it to be. I genuinely think that with better marketing, the Steam Deck would take some of NIntendo’s dinner. There are people who are happy playing indies, older games and the occasional blockbuster, and they could do it for less money in a more reliable ecosystem and on a better screen. That people are sticking with the brand they trust isn’t surprising but the alternative product is there.

But the Switch 2’s biggest strength is the branding on the back. It’s in the characters in the image above and the fact that it just works, with no tricky questions or fumbled installs. It’s mainstream, it’s popular, it’s in the shop when you turn up for one.

The gulf between these products is not huge, but the artificial one created by fans is deep and insurmountable.

Switch 2: A Modern Console for Modern Gamers

This mentality has always been there. Console wars have evolved. While it used to be enough to list game names and count pixels, now that is very much frowned upon. Spending hours “analysing” these company’s business sense is the way it’s done now. But be careful to just cherry pick the data you like.

The Switch 2 might be the first console released that moves towards a new way of looking at our devices. The Switch, while it laid the groundwork, was still mired in the issue of not being a PlayStation or an Xbox. Some of us waited for years and years for this thing to fail because it wasn’t a PlayStation or an Xbox. It was defined by what it wasn’t.

But now even the PlayStation and Xbox aren’t what they were. Microsoft is going multiplatform and releasing its content far and wide. Sony is recovering from a GaaS push that never took off. They’re both developing handhelds. Both companies are looking at cross-media deals. The idea of a console as the cornerstone to your gaming life is now long gone. Unfortunately it happened in the last five years, since the new consoles were released, and the generation has felt weak as a result.

The Switch 2 and the Steam Deck can and should co-exist. And while my enjoyment of the Deck makes me wish more people would try it out, trying to compare the two on sheer financial grounds is a mistake only the internet could make.