Nintendo Change 2 vs Steam Deck (is a dumb argument)

Nintendo’s Change 2 is official. We’ve seen a video reveal of the ultimate design, teasing a extra thorough announcement in April. And throughout the platform fence, the Steam Deck and its many imitators within the PC handheld area have by no means been hotter. So now it’s time for the inevitable, attention-grabbing headlines pitting them in opposition to each other. Which one is best? Which one will win?

Neither. Each. It doesn’t matter. It is a dumb comparability to make, in an editorial article or a YouTube video with a goggle-eyed face and arrows within the thumbnail.

As a result of the Nintendo Change 2 and the Steam Deck, for all that they share in kind issue, are serving totally different markets and totally different individuals. As large gaming merchandise, each of them inform and affect the opposite. However these two merchandise don’t compete straight, not in the identical approach that, say, the Xbox and PlayStation compete. And even in the identical approach that these consoles compete with the PC.

So I’d prefer to say, with no small quantity of self-aware apology, don’t take heed to anybody who needs to border this as a direct competitors. Let’s break it down.

The Change saved Nintendo

Nintendo launched the unique Change slightly over eight years in the past in 2017. And when you weren’t paying consideration on the time, it was a huge deal. After the disappointing flop that was the Wii U, Nintendo got here out swinging, leaning on its unbelievable success with gaming handhelds to revitalize its core console enterprise and unify the complete firm, multi functional product.

The Change wasn’t excellent. It was very underpowered in comparison with every other main console, it had severe points with its controllers, it didn’t final lengthy on a cost, and Nintendo hasn’t executed a great job managing its digital sport retailer. However denying the Change’s influence and affect can be not possible.

The merging of transportable and residential console kind components through the included dock was ingenious, even when it took the failure of the Wii U’s large screen-controller-thing to get there. Throw within the Change Lite to attraction to youthful gamers, who have been at all times much more engaged with transportable gaming anyway, and all of a sudden Nintendo was printing cash.

Throughout three fashions, the Change has offered 146 million consoles worldwide on the time of writing. Solely the PS2 and the unique Nintendo DS beat it for lifetime gross sales, and its nominal competitor the PS4 is approach behind on that listing. It certainly doesn’t damage that the Change began at a $300 value level, which is dear for a conveyable in context with the Sport Boy, however very reasonable in comparison with the PlayStation or Xbox.

The Change most likely helped Valve make the Steam Deck

The Nintendo Change was such an enormous success that it was not possible for it not to affect the PC gaming market. However that’s a couched assertion. Whereas there have been just a few notable handheld units making an attempt to hitch PC video games to the Change’s kind issue (or a minimum of its form), none made it into the mainstream. Even huge firms like Dell (through its Alienware model) and Razer experimented with a Change-style gaming PC handhelds, however they largely didn’t transcend mildly attention-grabbing commerce present demos.

Till the Steam Deck. Valve lastly revealed its transportable PC, working its home-grown Linux OS, in 2021. The Steam Deck resurrected Valve’s makes an attempt to create each console-style PC {hardware} and its personal built-in platform for PC gaming, all with the transportable kind issue of the Change. It may additionally simply dock to a monitor or TV, with wi-fi controllers or perhaps a mouse and keyboard. It was a smash hit instantly upon its February 2022 launch.

Nevertheless it’s necessary to identify the main points right here. The Steam Deck was not and isn’t a direct competitor to the Change, regardless that they share a whole lot of design components. Certain, each of them are transportable sport machines with comparable layouts, and the Steam Deck makes use of an built-in retailer that’s principally the closest factor PC players should the Xbox or PlayStation shops. However that’s about the place the similarities finish.

The Change is designed with youngsters in thoughts, if not completely for them. It’s straightforward to make use of, onerous to interrupt, and the cartridges are even coated in a nasty bitter agent to maintain youngsters from swallowing them. (Which is a really cool contact, Nintendo, kudos.) The Steam Deck, regardless of beginning at a reasonably reasonably priced (in PC gaming phrases) $400, could be very a lot geared toward grown-ups. It’s a lot larger and heavier, and also you’re invited to open it up and mod it or restore it if it strikes your fancy.

Maybe extra pertinently, the Steam Deck is a full pc, utilizing x64 {hardware} tailored from AMD’s built-in CPU-GPU combos designed for laptops. You may even set up Home windows on it if you need (however don’t try this). The Change is a much more locked down and proprietary system constructed on Nvidia’s Tegra chips, an Arm system that was (on the time) virtually completely for smartphones and built-in electronics. Attempt to run something however Nintendo software program on the Change, and it’ll struggle you each step of the way in which. It’s, in a phrase, a console.

For all of the inspiration that the Steam Deck and SteamOS take from the console world, Valve isn’t stopping you from doing principally no matter you need with the factor, identical to a laptop computer or desktop. The identical is generally true for the assorted Home windows-based imitators which have sprung up during the last three years, from Asus, Lenovo, MSI, et cetera. These are handheld gaming PCs, not handheld sport consoles, a small however essential distinction.

There’s at all times been a whole lot of crossover between console gaming and PC gaming, and that’s by no means been extra true than at present, when the Xbox and PlayStation are each principally simply x64 PCs with a whole lot of proprietary software program. However for the reason that late 90s, Nintendo has stood aside from its opponents. Even when it wasn’t beating them — and it hardly ever was — it holds a really specific place that it’s carved out for itself. And that offers it a singular relationship to the PC as a gaming platform.

You purchase a PlayStation or an Xbox or a PC to play video video games. There are some exceptions — Sony particularly has some nice exclusives, regardless that it’s sending a whole lot of them to the PC. However you purchase a Nintendo console to play Nintendo video games. That’s at all times been true, and at all times been the first draw of its platforms.

The Change is a perfect secondary gaming gadget

The Change was no totally different, blasting out of the gate with Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Mario Odyssey and Smash Bros. Final rapidly following, all experiences you possibly can’t (legally) replicate on non-Nintendo {hardware}. The instant success of the Change additionally gave Nintendo a possibility to rapidly port in some nice video games from the Wii U that noticed much less play on that much less profitable console, resembling Mario Kart 8 and Pikmin 3. Nintendo has steadily launched new and profitable video games for the Change, plus a lot of ports and remakes, all through its lifetime.

Nintendo has loads of devotees that solely care about Nintendo video games, and may depend on them to purchase new consoles and titles commonly. This core viewers has saved the corporate afloat throughout the leaner years of the GameCube and Wii U. However extra generalized players additionally see the attraction of Nintendo, and customarily purchase its stuff as a secondary system if they’ll afford it. So it’s fairly widespread, a minimum of in prosperous markets, to see a setup with a PlayStation + Nintendo console, Xbox + Nintendo, or PC + Nintendo. I’ve obtained a Change docked on my desk proper now, even with an enormous gaming desktop beneath it.

With the Change’s attraction as a conveyable and comparatively reasonably priced system that’s extra succesful than any mainstream gadget that got here earlier than it, this marketplace for Nintendo as an ancillary gaming platform solely grew. It grew a lot and so rapidly that Nintendo was capable of appeal to the third-party builders that always deal with it like a second-class citizen. Despite the fact that the Change’s cellular {hardware} is much much less highly effective than every other adjoining platform, you possibly can play every little thing from hardcore video games like Darkish Souls to multiplayer twitch-fests Overwatch and Fortnite to indie darlings like Balatro on it. The Nintendo eShop, warts and all, is much and away the corporate’s most profitable digital retailer ever.

There’s a whole lot of crossover with the PC gaming market on that listing. However as soon as once more, I stress that the Change and the Steam Deck are distinct sufficient merchandise that they aren’t actually promoting to the identical clients, or a minimum of not completely to the identical clients. You may’t play Zelda on the Steam Deck (not with out a whole lot of questionably authorized work and compromises). You may’t play Elden Ring or Marvel Rivals on the Change.

A small quantity of players will need all of that, and be restricted to picking both a Nintendo console or a Steam Deck/gaming laptop computer/desktop/PlayStation. (I’d put an Xbox in there, if anybody was shopping for an Xbox in 2025.) However the far better variety of players will both be okay with a Change, okay with a distinct platform, or okay with shopping for each. And that’s not prone to change anytime quickly.

The Nintendo Change 2 and the Steam Deck are pleased neighbors

PC gaming is extra affluent than it’s ever been in 2025, even when the business as a complete goes into it with a notable black eye. The Steam Deck is a giant a part of that, and can proceed to be so if Valve’s newest strikes are any indication. Nevertheless it’s value protecting issues in perspective. Whereas PC gaming as a phase of the market is greater than Nintendo’s very worthwhile chunk, the Steam Deck has solely offered just a few million models by estimate, an order of magnitude fewer than the Change even limiting it to only the previous few years.

The Change was and is an incredible success for Nintendo, putting out by itself path to defy and disrupt its console competitors. The Change 2 may be a continuation of that success…or a disappointing follow-up, just like the GameCube and Wii U adopted the N64 and the Wii. However both approach, Nintendo’s distinct place within the gaming panorama just isn’t a menace to Valve, the Steam Deck, or PC gaming as a complete. These platforms borrow from each other and profit from mutual successes. They’re pleased neighbors, not feuding clans.

There are a small variety of players, and hopefully readers of this text, who might want to select between the Change 2 and the Steam Deck (or PC gaming usually). However that alternative will come all the way down to what video games you need to play and, much more pertinently, which one you possibly can afford. Lists of {hardware} options and specification spreadsheets will play a vanishingly small function within the determination.

Purchase a Nintendo Change 2, purchase a Steam Deck, purchase ’em each if you wish to and may afford ’em. However don’t purchase into the narrative that that is some sort of zero-sum prize struggle between large companies. It’s a dumb argument to make, an excellent dumber one to dwell on.