Steam's gargantuan library includes PC games from 30 years ago and Sony's God of War side-by-side. Outside of Nintendo exclusives, there's barely a distinction between 'console games' and 'PC games' anymore-most games today are released on as many platforms as possible.

Still, the timing is good for the Steam Deck. I'd be silly to suggest the Steam Deck will suddenly outsell the Switch-raw power has never been enough to beat a Nintendo handheld. But if component shortages stretch on, it may well become a more attractive first or only PC.Īnd at least in terms of power, it's the Switch Pro many people were hoping to see last year when Nintendo disappointingly just slapped a bigger OLED screen onto the Switch. The Steam Deck's biggest audience will still likely be PC gamers who use it as a secondary device, as a more convenient way to plow through their backlogs of Steam Sale games away from their desks. Pre-ordering the Steam Deck could mean a long wait, but Valve's Greg Coomer told me in August that 'It's our job to produce units as fast as we can in the highest quantity we can, so a lot of us are working on how we can make more Steam Decks. A $529 Steam Deck looks pretty good next to an $8 someone's trying to flip on Ebay. But the continued shortages could also end up being an opportunity.

2021 was a bad year for PC gaming hardware. In one sense Valve is selling the Steam Deck at a difficult time-global hardware shortages already forced Valve to push the launch back by a few months, while graphics cards and some other components remain in critically short supply. The Switch was an ideal companion for a gaming PC, but now the Steam Deck can fill that role. Some games just felt right on the Switch's screen, played propped up in bed or on the go. Many PC gamers knew they could get a game cheaper on Steam, but opted to buy and play it on the Switch instead for the portability. When Nintendo released the Switch, it managed to draw people away from the places they were already playing games. And convenience shouldn't be underestimated. That convenience is the key thing handheld gaming PCs have been missing until this point.

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