I had little faith in Steam Deck
I have to admit it: I am a fan of Nintendo Switch and proof of this is that I have all the versions that the Japanese have released, both of the original model and the OLED or Lite. My passion for it came from its condition as a laptop, to be able to take it everywhere both inside and outside the house. In other words, she was the only one who allowed me to enjoy my passion, the only way that she often has left for a gamer who works all day, has a family and little time to sit in front of a TV to enjoy PS5, Xbox Series X or PC. For this reason, during the last four years it has been, by far, the machine that I have played the most and that has provided me with the most hours of entertainment, above any other console, PC, Mac or Chinese emulation invention.
And in this that Steam Deck appears in March 2022. Valve’s store on the screen of a portable console, able to launch any game. Too perfect it seemed the thing. Although I had many doubts about how the games could be configured, how the interfaces would be adapted and if all the launches in the store could be handled in the gamepad style or with those tactile surfaces that emulate the movement of the mouse. It’s more, I also had doubts about the possibility of accessing my purchases in other stores digital like Battle.net, Epic Games Store, GoG and even the official ones from Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, etc. As if the above were not enough, I was suspicious of the battery life and the graphic quality of the device itself. But in all these aspects he has passed the exam with flying colours.
The result is that Steam Deck has managed to keep my main Nintendo Switch, the OLED, for two months in a drawer because I have been able to enjoy in mobility (in a park, in the kitchen, in the garden, in the field or in the office) titles like Elden Ring, God of War, Judgment, Spider-Man Remaster, stray, Red Dead Redemption 2, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Death Stranding Director’s Cut or most recent A Tale Plague Requiem with an extraordinary quality and fluidity, which I did not expect, so I have been able to take the desktop experience with me wherever I have gone, without having to anchor myself to an armchair for several hours.
New shopping habits
The most immediate result of this experience is that I have bought many of the games that I already had on consoles and that due to lack of time it was impossible to complete and finish them, so, unwittingly, it has transformed my purchasing habits by opening the door to a Steam in which the prices are much cheaper than in the PlayStation Store, Microsoft Store or the very Nintendo eShop. That, without counting the possibility of acquiring keys in stores that do really good deals with new products at half price.
Without a doubt, Valve has achieved it. From having practically forgotten its store and its ecosystem, I have gone on to recover the old habit of feeding games to my PC because of a Steam Deck that is capable of launching the latest releases and, of course, all those that will arrive in the near future. That, unfortunately, is impossible for the Nintendo Switch to achieve since their attempts to have AAA as Controlthe two last resident Evil either A Plague Tale Requiem they are based on an ineffective cloud gaming system.
Goodbye Switch forever?
To say that I will not use Switch again would be lying, and a lot, because there is a part of the catalog that will never be available on Steam Deck, such as the releases of Nintendo itself. Now, I know that YUZU exists (even Valve has shown it in one of its official videos) and that many see in that emulation a way to play with the great Japanese franchises, but it is not in my plans to do something similar and illegal. So yes, as many fear, when The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom comes next year there will be no doubt that I will put my new toy to rest to return to one of the best consoles I have ever owned.
But unfortunately, right now the Steam Deck’s gaming experience is so superior to that of the Nintendo Switch that it scares me to think that it will take a long time to turn it back on. And it is that Nintendo is Nintendo and as much as it hurts me not to touch her dildo, she is respected.
