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[-] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 46 points 1 year ago

Why hasn't anyone else made one to compete that's cheap? Because, Mr.Author...No one else can make their money back by selling software.

[-] Telorand@reddthat.com 22 points 1 year ago

The Switch certainly predates the Deck, and they definitely make their money back on software, but being forced solely into the Nintendo ecosystem is off-putting. Only Microsoft is a likely candidate to make a handheld that uses their Game Pass, and I would bet they aren't really needing to push subscriptions at the moment.

The Switch isn't that expensive to make, the chip, memory, and storage are all budget af.

[-] Telorand@reddthat.com 3 points 1 year ago

I just looked it up, and it looks like Nintendo likely makes $40-$80 per Switch (estimated based on part costs). A decent profit, considering software (a big money maker) is just gravy at that point.

[-] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago

Why are you trying to compare a computer to a walled garden Nintendo switch? Hell, you're making my argument for me.

[-] Telorand@reddthat.com 10 points 1 year ago

I can't believe I have to rehash this again. A Switch is a computer. My point wasn't that it's somehow better, but Nintendo already did exactly what you said: made a handheld portable computer with built-in screen that can play games locally and is sold at a loss only to recoup those losses with software sales.

The Deck can do more than the Switch, but that doesn't make the Switch less of a computer.

[-] adrian783@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Nintendo hardwares are sold for profit

[-] kryllic@programming.dev 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Bingo,I think people forget Valve went out of their way to make their profit margin razor thin, or at a slight loss because they know the benefit of having a device that basically assures a new paying user will be added in their Steam ecosystem. It's based on Nintendo's walled garden philosophy after all, just refined really well on PC.

[-] SeriousBug@infosec.pub 15 points 1 year ago

It's not a walled garden though, Valve made no attempts to lock anything down. You can install something like Heroic Game Launcher on the Steam Deck and play Epic Game Store or GOG games too.

[-] baduhai@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah, it's based on the philosophy, but it doesn't strictly follow the philosophy.

[-] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 year ago

While this is true and works out that way, it's either put in a bit of work to get a game to run (I have epic games borderlands 2 handsome Jack collection and it crashes a lot on me) or use the store that has all the games and controller settings set up specifically to the deck. Having the option is great, but using steam is still easiest and makes any deck owners default purchase store choice for a game as steam. To the point where if I had to pay $25 for a game on steam vs $20 on epic or any other, I'd just go ahead and get the steam version if I intended to play it on my deck.

[-] DaTingGoBrrr@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago

Valve also made a really thought out and well designed product, which I think is pretty rare these days. The instant hibernation feature is just one example of why the Steam Deck is so much better than the competition

[-] deo@beehaw.org 7 points 1 year ago

It's funny. I thought I would just play through my SO's gargantuan library for a long while, but I'm pretty sure I've spent more on new games than I did on the Steam Deck itself at this point. So, yeah. They made the right call.

this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2023
349 points (97.5% liked)

Steam Deck

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