Switch:

- Has a nearly unusable store front where discovery is basically impossible

- Requires you to pay for online matchmaking, while having a worse online user experience than the Xbox360

- Has remarkably fragile joysticks prone to drifting after any decent amount of play

- Has no capability of streaming from my pc

- Doesn't support modding

I would love to live in a world where Nintendo had a modern digital presence, but we just aren't there.

That said, your points aren't wrong. The switch is definitely more ergonomic so if I know a game is on there and I don't care to mod it then that's where I go.

> - Has a nearly unusable store front where discovery is basically impossible

A store is a place to buy games, i don't want no algorithm telling me what i "should" buy, you can easily manipulate it to promote your friends with lot of money, wich is already what's happening with Steam, i miss the old days of people sharing about games they found and writting about them on blog posts, i find new indie games to play thanks to the various youtubers, not thanks to "steam algorithm"

> - Requires you to pay for online matchmaking, while having a worse online user experience than the Xbox360

Xbox360? some data is leaking agent John, but yeah, that sucks, but they added RetroGaming capabilities, so there is that

> - Has remarkably fragile joysticks prone to drifting after any decent amount of play

I agree with you on that, build quality is very poor, hence why i personally don't own a Switch

> - Has no capability of streaming from my pc

I'm not interested in that

> - Doesn't support modding

I'm not interested in that

> I would love to live in a world where Nintendo had a modern digital presence, but we just aren't there.

I'm not interested in that

A nintendo switch lite is 199€, steam deck is 419€, double the price

As an owner of both, the Switch catches up in price fast when we start talking about cost of the games over time vs. what you can save on a regular basis in Steam sales. Nintendo is infamous for rarely putting its exclusive games on sale, despite how many of its competitors have no problem with that (i.e. PlayStation Greatest Hits).

I would also argue that the game library in Steam is vastly superior; more options, more titles, and lots of great indie games.

If you don't like Steam at all, installing Windows or just using Proton directly in the desktop mode (to install/add your own games from other sources) is a viable option.

The retro gaming offerings are embarrassing compared to what the Wii had.

You pay a subscription to have access to a small list of games. The virtual console was way better, and more complete.

Since we’re talking about personal experiences the price difference is non issue for me. I already have more than 200 games in my Steam library with about half of them running fine on the Deck. I would have to buy games on Switch if I had one, but with Deck I’m already settled.

Are the games running on chromium? Genuine question as I did consider buying one.

Not at all, just the store / collection manager / launcher, Steam proper / the Steam application is based on web technology. And it's a pretty adequate application, a little clunky but works fine.

no, just the steam client, it's using CEF [1], wich is what electron uses

[1] - https://github.com/chromiumembedded/cef

Thanks!

I was super bummed out when steam switched to chromium. Goodbye super fast interfaces, hello slowmium.

it crashes waaaaaaay less now though. It's easy to forget how often old steam would crash

The Deck's size and button placement is a million times better than the Switch. It's more comfortable to hold and use, and has a bigger screen.

> heavy

not at all. It's much lighter than it looks like. Everyone who has one says that.

> button placement is very bad (as a result of the size)

Nobody ever complained about that after having one in their hands

> steam software is just bad, slow and resource intensive (it's basically a web browser powered by chromium)

Do you spend time on your web browser in a console?

> not every games are compatible

At least you have games, and more than enough good ones are compatible.

> not every games have controller support

That's why you have trackpads for. Genius! Been playing many mouse-driven games on the Steam Deck and it's fine.

We have both. The steam deck has better graphics but the difference is negligible. Most games I’ve tried map the steam deck controls automatically, and with the exception of quake saves move from pc to deck easily.

Clearly the Nintendo is better for the games that are exclusive to its platform. The steam deck doesn’t have the anticheat for some games.

My initial deck had a battery issue (about 10 minutes of life) but support walked me through a bunch of things and they replaced it. 2nd times a charm. The deck can boot into a Linux desktop which is kinda fun.

There is a gog and epic game store proton game launcher I use on my Linux pc I should try… but that’s for another day..