It always did. But maybe not verified.
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.
And Nintendo insists on never discounting certain games. It’s hard to swallow paying $60 for a 5 year old game that I’m only somewhat interested in. Meanwhile steam will let you buy a game like that for $15 bucks. Half the time you buy it and never play it, but just wanted to get it on sale just in case you do find time to give it a go.
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
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.
Switch has Zelda. It’s the only reason we own a switch and the only game we play on it
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
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.
Nintendo has always had competition with superior hardware in the handheld department. The Sega Nomad, WonderSwan, and Playstation Vita were all good examples of that. Nintendo products being much cheaper are always what keeps them ahead with handheld consoles.
The biggest difference between then and now is that the switch was the first handheld that could reasonably play (some) full scale open world console games. Any handheld trying to compete before that effectively needed games specifically developed for it with limited scope. There wasn’t really the vibrant PC indie scene for easy ports to low spec hardware either, and the Switch was also the first to really court those.
These handheld PCs are pretty much the first time there’s competition with a big library to be a real alternative. Before now, it would have also taken partnering with studios to convince them to port games to your device.
This is a valid point I hadnt considered with the timeframe (although vita was a pretty badass system but your point about having to be specially ported to that device stands) but still with the current state of gaming as it exists right now Nintendo should not be selling a copy of a game that came out 8 years ago that runs at exactly half the fps of other systems for exactly double what everyone else has it listed for. They are like the Apple of video gaming.
Lol much cheaper? A nintendo game from 25 years ago will be resold for $70 today. You can buy Doom on the switch for about $60 and it might catch 30fps you can buy the same game for playstation or xbox for like $15. Have you ever priced their used games for switch? They are laughably expensive. Just checked Doom on nintendos official website is $40 playstation has a sale on it right now for $4 regularly full price for $20. HALF of what Nintendo charges and the game runs probably twice as fast on any system that isnt the switch. Even a USED switch version of doom on gamestop is $33 lmao a USED VERSION. Nintendo sucks
Yes and at $300 to $400 for a Deck and roughly the exact same price for a new switch Im saying that the cost is greater long term for Nintendo when you buy their overpriced games that dont even run at full fps. You essentially are paying the same price (maybe what like $100 less if you get the cheaper switch) for a tablet. If you were going to just buy both and set them on the shelf and never buy a game to play on them then maybe I would understand where you are coming from but you have to buy games to play on these or else why would uou buy one? Therefore the cost of the games should also be taken into account when considering the overall price of the system.
They were cheaper options at the time of their release. Nintendo games from the past have only increased in price because of the popularity of the brand that attracts collectors. You are correct about the long-term expenses being cheaper overall but the average person only looks at the price for the console itself and that is about as far as their long-term thinking goes. Fps does not matter as much to the more casual gamer that Nintendo attracts.
The perceived cheapness is what gives Nintendo the advantage.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It clearly underpins your opinion that Nintendo has been trying to enter the mobile market.
What do you mean ‘enter’? Nintendo created one of the first handheld gaming devices that ever existed, and they’ve been known for handheld devices all the way through their history.
@rainynight65 @noctisatrae never heard of the Atari Lynx, have you?
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.
I install it for my friends and no, “most people” cannot do this because booting into desktop mode and using dolphin sounds easy but its not for folks who just want it to work easy like a switch. Desktop mode is for power users and most console/pc owners are not power users.