Are PC handhelds like Steam Deck really competitors for Switch 2?

When Nintendo launched the Swap in 2017, it had no competitors in devoted handheld gaming, a sector it had established with the Sport Boy in 1989 and dominated ever since. Sega had come and gone; Sony, after two decided makes an attempt with the PlayStation Transportable and PlayStation Vita, had nearly given up.

As Swap 2 nears launch in 2025, issues look a bit totally different — however solely a bit. The colossal success of the Swap has awoken the slumbering giants. Sony and Microsoft are actually reportedly getting ready dedicated PlayStation and Xbox handhelds. Improbably, although, it was the PC gaming sphere that made the primary transfer. Valve led the best way with the Steam Deck in 2022, which swiftly seeded a rising ecosystem of comparable, PC-based handheld units from producers like Lenovo and Asus. After a quiet decade, non-Nintendo handheld gaming is a factor once more. And which means the Swap 2 is not going to run unopposed for handheld gaming supremacy.

In a way, Nintendo is the sufferer of its personal strategic foresight. With the Swap, it was the primary to identify that the narrowing hole in processing energy between cellular and at-home units had enabled a unification of handheld and residential gaming experiences. Lastly, the identical video games might work in each contexts. The Swap proved this level emphatically, and now everybody desires a chunk.

However with devoted units from Sony and Microsoft nonetheless years away, for now that competitors should come from Steam Deck and the opposite PC handhelds. My colleague Chris Plante persuasively argued that these units signify Nintendo’s “biggest threat in the present.” They trounce the Swap on specs and have closed the hole to up to date AAA gaming within the dwelling till it’s nearly imperceptible. Software program-wise, they provide the compelling worth and staggering vary of nearly all the pieces on Steam — and far of PC gaming past it, in the event you’re ready to fiddle a couple of bit.

It’s true that the Swap 2’s value and specs put it into direct competitors with the lower-end PC handhelds. At $449, it’s $50 costlier than the bottom mannequin Steam Deck. The Swap 2 is roughly comparable in power and storage, has a a lot better display, and with removable controllers and a TV dock included within the value, it’s rather more versatile to make use of. The bottom mannequin of Asus’ ROG Ally handheld ($499 or thereabouts) and the brand new Lenovo Legion Go S ($549) are additionally fairly shut rivals when it comes to specs.

In uncooked {hardware} phrases, these are all very related units. It’s price noting that the Swap 2’s exclusive access to Nvidia’s market-leading DLSS upscaling technology ought to permit it to punch a bit above its weight class. However realistically, there’s not a lot between them.

However — and it’s a really, very huge however — evaluating the Swap 2 to the PC handhelds by working your finger down a spec sheet, or by noting that they will all play Civilization 7 and Elden Ring, doesn’t inform the entire story. Inside an fanatic bubble, PC handhelds are an enormous deal, however they don’t exist in the identical universe as Nintendo consoles. To place it bluntly, PC handhelds are nonetheless area of interest.

The Steam Deck has been an enormous success for Valve, however let’s put it in perspective. Valve has not mentioned gross sales numbers, however market analysis estimates that it has sold around 4 million Steam Decks. And Steam Deck dwarfs its competitors; the identical analysis means that, in complete, round 6 million PC handhelds have been offered within the three years because the Steam Deck went in the marketplace. Worryingly, there aren’t but indicators of sturdy development in gross sales.

Stack that up in opposition to the Swap’s 150 million models offered and the wild distinction in scale turns into evident. After all, it isn’t a instantly analogous comparability. PC handhelds have solely existed for 3 years; the Swap has been round for eight years, and Nintendo has been within the handhelds enterprise for greater than 35 years. All the identical, Nintendo predicts it’s going to promote 11 million units of the aging Switch in its present fiscal yr — greater than 5 occasions the anticipated gross sales of PC handhelds in that point. In the meantime, analysts reckon that the Switch 2 will, on its own, outstrip the size of the PC handheld market nearly instantly, with 6 to eight million models obtainable at launch, and as much as 20 million gross sales in its first yr.

Valve is an enormous participant within the recreation business, and a really wealthy firm. However it’s a newcomer to the world of shopper electronics retail, and it has numerous catching as much as do — if it’s even excited by doing it. Steam Deck isn’t obtainable to buy in shops; you may’t stroll into Walmart and choose one up. Valve shouldn’t be shopping for advertisements for it on TV or at bus stops. Firms like Lenovo and Asus have extra conventional distribution channels, however they’re tiny minnows in comparison with the advertising and marketing, retail, and distribution would possibly of Nintendo.

There are different components that make the PC handhelds area of interest merchandise. The person expertise of Home windows-based handhelds just like the ROG Ally and Legion Go is notoriously unhealthy. Valve’s SteamOS is a lot better, however it’s nonetheless fairly far faraway from the reliability and ease supplied by Nintendo and the opposite console platforms.

You can’t unbox a brand new Steam Deck, flip it on, and play a recreation right away. It requires tinkering to get the perfect out of. Though Valve’s verification system for video games is a useful information, it’s not assured you’ll get a superb, playable expertise on each recreation. The Deck can be cumbersome and heavy. You’ll by no means purchase one for a kid, or share one inside a household — it’s clearly not designed to be shared. Realistically, it stays a troublesome promote for anybody who isn’t a gaming hobbyist.

There may be, reportedly, one upcoming machine that might be able to change this narrative a bit. Microsoft is alleged to be working with a PC handheld producer on a system that will have Xbox branding and a person interface based mostly on a brand new model of the Xbox PC app. This has the potential to be a extra user-friendly machine that gives easy accessibility to PC Sport Move on the go, which might be fairly compelling. However, though Microsoft has now been making Xbox consoles for over 20 years, it has consistently struggled to make use of that have to make PC gaming extra seamless, regardless of repeated makes an attempt — and the machine doesn’t sound like rather more than a stopgap till Microsoft’s personal devoted handheld console is prepared.

Nintendo is not going to have true competitors in handhelds till its friends within the console area get entangled. Microsoft is reportedly eyeing 2027 for the discharge of its handheld Xbox. Sony’s moveable PS5 can be stated to be years away, if it’s ever launched. Issues are positively heating up for Nintendo, and by the top (and even the center) of the Swap 2’s life, the hand-held gaming market is certain to be a lot busier than it’s now. However for the following few years, competitors for the brand new console will stay distant — at greatest.