Sooo, first off... WHAT HAVE I DONE?! Of course, after spending the last 30 minutes going through every page on here, there is one thing I want to summarily respond to on the whole.
- Emulation itself is a grey area, you could argue that all day and each side has valid points. The one things that stands in the middle of the grey area is profit. It's rare that a company goes after someone reverse engineering their things if said person is just doing it as a hobby, and you'll find that outside of gaming, people do all kinds of crazy reverse-engineering just because, well, some people love tinkering. Emulating really is at your own risk, but the moment you start having a monetized YT channel or streams, or are in any way making money from it, you'd better start getting worried. No one cares until money is involved, and that for me is the best reference point for emulation.
JWeinCom said: Sure, but the Switch does a lot of things the Steam Deck doesn't. I actually have used the detachable joycons with multiple players on many occasions. It's not the best controller, but it's perfectly serviceable for most games. More importantly than being useful for the Switch in handheld mode is the fact that it is usable in docked mode. This means you can play two player games out of the box, whereas with the Steambox you will need to have a separate controller to play even single player games in docked mode. I'm guessing most people have something that they can use for games in docked mode (at least a mouse and keyboard), but it may not be ideal, may not be plug and play, and they may not have enough for multiple players. Particularly for less tech savvy people, it's going to be a far clumsier solution that the Switch's quick and easy transition from handheld to docked or one players to two. |
I'm not sure if you know this, but... the emulators also work with Wiimotes and Joy Con. You can pair those up using Bluetooth, so the motion controls would also come along with the emulation because the dock has multiple USB ports. There's virtually nothing the Switch can do that the Steam Deck can't other than the detachable Joy Con, and ends up compensating by way of full support for any input devices you use on a PC. Good luck using a racing steering wheel or flight stick on a Switch lol
Soundwave said:
It really on takes watching a 3-4 minute video on Youtube these days. I remember back in the day how widespread Playstation piracy was and you have to actually soder the mod chip onto the board, but there was a massive market around doing that but people in the 90s were making due. DS piracy being quite widespread as the device aged, I think that was a big part of the reason Nintendo wanted to move on to the 3DS. Piracy/emulation is inevitably a problem if you want to keep using tech that is very outdated as time goes on, it become easy for piracy to become a problem. So I wouldn't say it's so complex that you have to be some kind of computer nerd to figure it out, it's not that hard to install an emulator on a PC. I don't know if this one specific model is the be all end, but I can see this doing well enough that Valve keeps iterating other models and eventually starts selling them in major retailers. And I could see other manufacturers trying their hand too, making it kind of like its own product category (Switch like portable PCs). This model is more like the genie coming out of the bottle, but once the genie is out, it's hard to put it back in. |
The funny thing about what you're saying is true: Nintendo's weaker hardware makes emulation just that much easier to do because virtually any mid-tier PC has more than enough power to do it. And the fact of the matter is that it's easier to do than people realize, and most kids can figure this stuff out... which I later saw as posts lmao
Chrkeller said: My kids wouldn't know how to download illegal software. I could see teenagers knowing but not kids (5 to 12 years old). Pirates need to stop justifying their actions and just accept they are breaking the law, full stop. |
Remember when we were kids and we got away with all kinds of things our parents didn't know about? Ever been caught doing something and THEN your parents found out because you got caught? Don't underestimate kids hahaha!
hinch said: I think people are missing the point in this thread and not watching OP's video. On top of this Steam as a platform is absolutely huge and not to be overlooked. If we look at how many active concurrent people playing and online - https://store.steampowered.com/stats/. There are millions of active gamers on there at any given time.
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You watched it?!
hinch said: Except most aren't? I'm not seeing it anywhere except for some select Youtubers who are honeymooning over this for clicks or FOMO (or both). Everyone else that's preordered the Deck or interested in the Deck knows what it is and what they are buying. Straw-manning isn't helping anything except derailing. Plus OP even said it was going for clicks on YT with that headline, and just went to do an overview, comparing specs and highlighting the strengths of the Deck. A large number of people (on this site included) wanted a Switch Pro and instead got an OLED model instead. Valve unveils a new handheld PC releaing in the same time frame. There is going to be talks of both regardless and comparisons made, on gaming sites forums etc. |
Wait wait... I didn't say I was going for clicks on YouTube, I actually made a literal title that represented what I was talking about lol
CGI-Quality said:
Precisely why they aren't PCs at all, 'stripped down' or otherwise. They remain a closed platform with barely a ¼ of PC's functionality. Very little to no customization, couldn't run half the programs on them (including a few I use to create high quality offline renders), and the list could go on. So, yes, the distinction remains. Despite how much I love my Series X, it is not even close to the PC just five feet from it. |
The distinction is more software-based functionality, and even then, it's simply programmed that way. He's got a fair point about a walled garden: the most custom thing about consoles is their form factor. They ARE using parts that can be found in PC hardware: the days of purely custom built silicon, APIs, etc. are all-but-gone, including with the Nintendo Switch. The remaining distinction is the OS in which, yes, it's a walled garden where there is far more control over the apps that can run on it (which naturally cuts down on bloatware). Just because I CAN'T open up MS Word and type up an essay on an Xbox Series X doesn't mean it can't do it, the functionality is simply not allowed. They are PCs, just with less functionality, not that they aren't PCs at all. I mean, on the flipside, many apps are made for the consoles to allow functionality not built into the OS, so in theory if someone wanted to make an app for 3D rendering on the Series X using your controller, it would be entirely possible if allowed.
Paperboy_J said: As far as the piracy thing goes, I honestly don't think much is going to change. The people who pirate videogames have been pirating for a while, they've been pirating forever. The Deck isn't going to suddenly create new pirates who weren't already pirating. |
This! Piracy is its own entire ecosystem on its own.
padib said: That's not the whole dickture! |
*hole dickture lol; glad to hear someone enjoyed the juvenile humor
I actually answered this above: emulators also allow you to use Wiimotes/Joy Con through Bluetooth lol... So really, there is virtually nothing left the Switch can do that the Deck doesn't except detach said Joy Con. As for the weight... come on, man: 1 x 2 is 2. Ergo, twice has heavy sounds heavy, but then it's 1.6 lbs which is easily still within "proper handheld" territory weight lmao
KLAMarine said:
Good old WiiU gamepad. I liked that thing, wish Nintendo would make it backwards compatible with the Switch. |
I know what you meant, but that would be forwards compatibility with the Switch lol... I do miss the Gamepad, though: way better ergonomics than the Switch as a handheld! Sadly, I do very little handheld gaming, so it's not really a big deal to me, but for those that do, the Gamepad did such a better job...