Mnementh said:
I argue the notion, that Switch selling more than SteamDeck is somehow unfair or due to secondary concerns. No, for most people Switch is objectively the better system, it delivers them more value
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Except... it's not, because you are comparing fundamentally distinct products
Steamdeck is a portable PC, it's not worldwide available that still having a limited queue for purchases because Valve can't produce as many machines as they want. It's not a mass market product, it's a product with restricted rollout and with a bunch of substitutes
To explain better, I'll write a story
Let's say a jewelry store is selling a line of expensive rings with limited number of copies with a diamond inside of it. If someone can't get that piece of jewelry, what this people will do? Probably buy another ring in other store, or other piece of jewelry altogether. The point is, this person won't be out of options
It doesn't mean that specific diamond ring doesn't have a tons of value (more value than let's say a Ruby or Emerald Ring), it's just that they won't pass for the hurdle to get one when they have a very high of stores selling other rings that will serve exactly the same purpose, many of them just as good as this one they are missing
Consoles are fixed products that are sold in mass market for years. The reason why they accumulate high sales is because of that. PCs have much shorter shelve life are and quickly replaced buy new models, hence a PC model will never sell as much as a console.
If Switch gets out of print tomorrow, what's are my (console) options? There are two, and there is wait, you wait a couple of weeks and get your Switch
That's what is happening with PS5, for instance though is a much smaller scale. Imagine if instead of just Series XS there was at least 20 different hardware manufacturers selling a system that could play EXACTLY the same games of PS5, how much do you think PS5 sales would have collapsed by now?