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Your PC purchases, however, will still be available and playable, be it on the Steam Deck 4, or some awesome laptop/desktop from 2036. I can still play all my PC games from 30+ years ago on my modern PC. I can't plug an NES cartridge into the Switch, and I have to rely on Nintendo's whims as they slowly trickle out those old games to be playable on a subscription service that could be shut down after the Switch 2 or whatever is released.
Food for thought. The Steam Deck technically plays more Nintendo published games than the Nintendo Switch. Unofficially, of course.
Another thing to factor in is how often do those indies go on sale on Steam compared to on the Nintendo eshop? You'll save money going PC.
Hardware wise, I see no problem owning both systems but I'll be using Switch for just 1st party titles. Steam Deck looks to be so much for flexible for anything but those Nintendo Switch games.
unless you have a lot of money to buy a switch you wont use for playing but as an investment to sell to a collector in a "rainy day" many years (lets say at least 20) in the future, the switch imo is not a great option. its obviously too expensive and more limited, as everyone else has commented.
if you can afford both, great, but if i had both systems i would spend more time in the deck because the steam library would offer more options.
plus, something no one has mentioned here that also should be obvious: mods. switch and typical console games cannot be modified or played with "user made content", but a lot of pc games do, and since the deck works as a mini computer, pc games with mods have more replay value than typical console games (thats why many people still play old valve games like portal 2 or left 4 dead 2).
on the downside some mods or special programs only work in windows, but thanks to the evolution of proton that has been changing fast. And after the deck becomes more known and popular, maybe more devs will make easier to mod games for linux, or to work through proton.
Big fan of buying indie games so do a lot of it....now to somehow port 200+ of them from my switch over to steam heh.
Having a decent library doesn't mean you couldn't invest in other systems.
Also, when it comes to the preferred platform to release games, Switch usually gets shafted with delays or no release in sight.
I don't know which region you're from but Steam regional pricing is a blessing for many, I mean where else would you find sales going as a low as 90% with occasional freebies ?
If you want my opinion get both but start obtaining games from a place that doesn't charge an arm.
Keep in mind, you don't have to purchase licences on Steam when using the Deck (though it will be the most straight-forward way). You could also buy DRM-free games from GOG or you could choose to support indie developers even more by buying games directly from them, should they offer these options.
XCOM 2, Hades, Dead Cells, Dark Souls ((remaster)), Ruiner and Hyper Light Drifter are all games i own on steam and/ or thought about getting the portable version of. Problem with that was the fact that the ports are horrible (even when DC and HLD are pixelart games and in general aren't that performance heavy). Either stuttering, terribly low framerate, issues that the pc versions do not have, no cloud saves, which means redoing everything you'd have unlocked in titles like DeadCells, Darksouls and Hades.
Now if we leave out the entire thing about the switch being a nintendo brick that allows you only exactly what nintendo wants you to do, regardless of the amount of games you already own, the deck is a better option. I own plenty of ported games that i do not have on steam and I'm getting the 512GB version just for some of the same titles in better performance and a load of other titles that became portable (WITH CROSS SAVES / CLOUD SAVES!!!).
The fact that you dont have to rely on nintendo or some janky 3rd party company to poorly port a game to the switch anymore was enough of a reason for me buy/ preorder the most expensive version. (Aside portable Factorio being a thing). One last thing to note is that you shouldnt forget about what is gonna happen when nintendo releases their next console line. All your switch titles will be unplayable on those and you'll probably have to rebuy some of em if you want to play a game like RE: Revelations again on the newer console (Had it on 3DS, had to buy it again on the switch which isnt worth it due to dead online playerbase).
But all in all, there's litte reason to go with a Deck here, there's heaps of indies on the Switch store, they play just very damn fine, the Switch is more affordable than the Deck, I'm also willing to bet on the overall battery life time being superior.
On a personal note, I am a Switch owner. However, I got craptons of games of Steam (many of those ain't exactly indies, my current ones are Quantum Break & Greedfall) and I'm pretty sure I'll play on my Deck. A lot. The thing is, I got the Switch for mobile gaming (the PC masterrace pretty much sucks for mobile gaming, best case, you get something like the Ayo Neo which is hella expensive but at least it works for the use case), not specifically for Nintendo gaming. Gotta say, their exclusives are still bang great games!
On the other hand, my salary is above national average in an overall-rich country and due to the pandemic, I get to keep lots of money which I'd otherwise had spent in pubs. My point is, buying a Deck after already owning a Switch (and a gaming PC because that's the bare basics) is more decadence than luxury. Not everyone is a rich ♥♥♥♥ like I am.
When the Switch reaches EOL (which won't happen anytime soon), I have an apocalypse plan. I'll buy the biggest SD card money can buy and comb through the store one last time, to get everything I remotely imagine ever enjoying playing on my Switch. That (and my huge Steam library as well as my Wii classics) will make for enough gaming until my EOL.
I disagree that Switch being more affordable. For entry sure, but you end up spending more money on Switch games than PC. I tend to think of consoles like printers, cheap and affordable because they are sold at loss, but you get burned once you start buying ink cartridges. That's what's funny about consoles, the hardware is cheap but games are considerably more expensive because the console manufacturers do not allow digital games to be sold outside the mentioned store. PC, on the other hand just have better deals overall because Nintendo and Sony wall-gardens its digital stores. This isn't the same with Steam, you could buy Steam keys from 20+ different vendors with competitive pricing.
For instance, Humble Bundle right now offers "Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night" for as low as $8 with 11 other games. The lowest price sold on eShop for this game was $16.
Another example, Stealth Bundle for $12 that include Hitman 1+2 gold edition.
https://www.humblebundle.com/games/best-of-stealth-bundle
Point being, there's no way you'd ever find deals like this on Switch or PS Store for that matter.
The switch being cheaper is like a 50,- difference between the cheapest deck model and the switch OLED so that also doesn't matter much if you also have to think about getting games (if you didn't own any on a switch before), paying for online membership ((if you want to play anything online)), and a dongle or two for cabled internet connection and whatever else you'd like or need to run the thing on a monitor.
Another thing to keep in mind is the fact that you can't refund anything you get on the switch if you bought a title off of the eshop, they have made it incredibly easy for anyone who has a job or just money on hand to pick the deck over a switch. The 4 yearly exclusives might be enough to get a switch but in general if you want a massive list of indies or just good old(er) games, the deck outclasses the switch by aeons
Yesn't, whilst there are games and applications on Steam that don't require Steam to run and can be moved across computers fairly easily, once you purchase a licence through Steam, you always need Steam to install a game properly. Even the backup feature requires Steam to work.
With GOG, you can purchase a licence and then download a digital copy as a proper offline installer without having to bother with any middleman again, which is much more akin to purchasing a physical copy.
On GOG, legally, you still don't own the game but a licence to play the game, yet you have absolute control over your copy, giving you defacto ownership of your copy. I can't say that for Steam.
Steam is still more consumer-friendly than charged subscription services though. :D
So yes, downloading a standalone installer from a webpage is a nice option, but I don't see that is that different from downloading a game from a client. The only thing I can think of that's really missing in regards to "Installing properly" is maybe making shortcuts to the came.
But it is true if you want a backup drive or BDs full of games waiting to be played, GOG is better in this regards. All I'm saying is you can mostly do the same for Steam.