Alistair said: The Steam deck won't "kill" it but it will hurt sales. People got the message "this is what is possible" vs. the Switch OLED being based on 7 year old 2014 cellphone hardware (the Deck is using current laptop hardware, not mobile hardware, it is much more powerful for both those 2 reasons). I think the only issue for Valve is the device is a little big and heavy. Engineering isn't as good as Nintendo's OLED model even if the APU is 10x better. Nintendo just needs to get their Switch 2 out soon and it will match the Deck in performance. Apple badly needs to enter this space with their M1X product. $600 for a gaming device it would sell crazy with an M1X. Don't pretend the Steam Deck isn't popular. It has now been pre-ordered to Q3 next year. In a week if you place an order you might have to wait until next Christmas 2022. |
Standard Switch won't be hurt in any way
Steam Deck isn't a mass market product, the copies are limited. Even if every game in the world wake up tomorrow suddenly decide Switch is overpriced what can anyone possible do? Wait 2 years until Valve has established their production line (if ever)?
Switch by all means still the only handheld in the console market. It's a monopoly, it can't be challenged anytime soon. Up to Switch 2, then maybe, maybe Nintendo can face a degradation in hardware and software sales, as gamers will have an option to play indies and third parties somewhere else
Until there no chance