Comment by mentos
5 hours ago
Short term the argument that 'piracy exists yet doesn't affect steam sales' holds true.
Long term when someone makes emulating Switch 2 on your Steam Deck a 1-click install I'm not so sure.
5 hours ago
Short term the argument that 'piracy exists yet doesn't affect steam sales' holds true.
Long term when someone makes emulating Switch 2 on your Steam Deck a 1-click install I'm not so sure.
The Switch 1 sold about 150m units, the Steam Deck’s sold 6m.
Internet nerds like us aren’t really Nintendo’s target market, I don’t think. Installing emulators or jailbreaking a system isn’t something most of their customer base would have the want or need to do, IMO.
Even some of us internet nerds are Nintendo fans who wouldn't go anywhere near emulating. Apart from any of the moral concerns, it's just such a worse experience: I want to use a touch screen, a portable device, a proper gamepad, etc. Nintendo has built up quite a considerable amount of goodwill since the 1980s, and the reward for that is a pretty loyal customer base.
So, emulation on a Steam Deck!
But still, you have to set it up, so I get your point.
> I want to use a touch screen, a portable device, a proper gamepad, etc.
For what it's worth: you can use your ordinary Switch controllers on any PC just fine.
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So true. It's dangerous to form world views based on "What HN thinks". This is the best community on the Internet IMHO but we're a very tiny slice of the population. "Real people" tend to not behave like us.
Same thing with GTA 6.
A tiny fraction of people might decide to go through hoops to pirate, but most will either play the normal way or do something else.
I had a thread disagreeing with me when i brought that up.
People will be playing it at release on PC, regardless if whether it's available or not
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Yeah I think the Switch is popular with parents because it’s locked down and mostly just works.
Like if you want to do zero technical things and provide access to Minecraft without providing access to TikTok.
all it takes is 1 TikTok trend
Very unlikely to happen via emulation, there's Switch 1 games that the Steam Deck struggles to run already.
More likely to happen via recompilation, if anything. Game ports via recompilation have been taking off in the last month or so, all the way up to systems as recent as the PS5 and Switch 1. It has far less overhead than emulation.
What about putting Steam on your Switch 2?
Totally, convenience always wins. I think this is more of a hardware sales issue for Nintendo though — if what I understand is true, I'd bet that we see Switch 2 games running on other systems before we see a CFW/decrypt-encrypt stack for running pirated games on the Switch 2 itself.
Would people still go to such lengths if Nintendo just released their games for the hardware people actually have, like the SteamDeck & PC ?
Still seems rather self-enflicted pain for Intendo due to still pushing locked-down consoles in 2026.
According to wikipedia, they sold over 23 million units of the switch 2 and over 155 million of the switch. Not that I agree with their aggressive practices but it clearly works. That's a lot more than the Steam Deck btw.
have you ever played first party titles on the switch?
the level of polish and stability on the open world zeldas is astonishing, i never experienced anything like that in third party AA/AAA games form the last 15 years or so, playing on the switch or on the pc.
They're fine, I'd rather have zelda with modding.
Out of curiosity, have you played God of War (2018) or God of War: Ragnarok (2022)[1]? I find the level of polish/stability of those games to be utterly incredible (almost to the point of ruining many other games for me), but I avoid Nintendo out of principle so I have no basis of comparison. Would love to hear from someone who has experienced both how they compare.
[1]: Given those were originally Playstation exclusives, it might not be the best example/comparison, but they have been available on Steam for quite some time
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People actually have Switch. Steam Deck install base is a rounding error for Nintendo. Sony regularly "finds" more PS2 sales than the Steam Deck sold.
I would buy a Switch if it were an open, hackable platform that I owned. If Nintendo put all of its games in stores on open platforms DRM-free, I buy and would own nearly every Nintendo title ever released.
Alas. Having a pleasant and moral game-playing experience falls on our and the community's shoulders.
I have no desire to buy Nintendo's hardware as I don't want to play their games badly enough to buy a dedicated console and deal with their practices. I have however enjoyed the last two Zelda titles on my PC where I was able to play them with performance and quality mods. Once it was just another application the barrier of entry was low enough to get my interest. If the games were available as actual PC titles I would have gladly paid for them
You can pay for them if you appreciate the effort that went into making the game. Nothing to stop you buying the Switch cart and playing an emulated version.
That's a fair point. Do they still sell physical copies? That seems to be going the way of the dodo
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