Steam Deck Vs. Nintendo Switch - Which One To Pick

Valve is finally shipping out the Steam Deck, the company's first foray into the console war. Details on the Deck are still lacking, but we already know many details about the system that paints it as a contender to the Nintendo Switch's title of hybrid king. The company is so confident about it that it even had the company's founder Gabe Newell making use of his expertise as a paperboy to hand-deliver some of the consoles himself.

Nintendo Switch rocks and, despite Nintendo's constant attempts at ruining their own catalog, still boasts quite the selection of exclusives. The Steam Deck won't have exclusives, as even the games made to show off the system can be played on a regular PC, but the console has a huge ace on its sleeve. The Deck isn't a two-way hybrid; it's a three-way one. This isn't just a portable console that can become a regular console; this is also a fully functioning gaming PC, one that's damn cheap.

The reason PC gamers act so snotty all the time is that a high-end PC just runs games better than consoles can ever hope to, but up until now, one would have to pay a premium price for that. From now on, $400 bucks will allow you to bypass the entire PC vs. Console war because that's now enough to fight for both sides. Also, The Steam deck is using new technology while even the newer Switch OLED model uses modified 5-year tech at best. The future looks scary for a system that struggled with achieving 30fps even during its heyday.

Not everything is perfect in Deck land, though. The hardware isn't comparable to that of a top-of-the-line computer, and you obviously won't find any of Nintendo's exclusives in there unless you turn to the dark side of emulation. 

Another sad turn of events for the possible fans of the Steam Deck is how the lucky few owners already caught some form of “stick drift” in the console. It's a problem that makes the cursor move even when no one's even touching the analog sticks, which an issue that also plagues the Switch. Valve, however, has stated that, unlike the joycon drift from the Switch, the one found on the Steam Deck is not hardware related, and has already been fixed via a new update. We can barely wait for Nintendo's next move where they try to make Half-Life 3 a Switch exclusive.

Top Image: Valve