Many of you probably heard about the Steam Deck announcement. This hybrid console officially announced by Valve last week was immediately compared to Nintendo Switch by press and gamers due to some similar features (although it also has several different aspects). Well, now comes word from Valve itself.
While some analysts have spoken out on the matter in the past, the company has now spoken out about these comparisons in a recent meeting with IGN. Specifically, it was designer Greg Coomer who first shared his thoughts on the matter, stating that Valve’s console is aimed at a different audience.
These are his words:
We tried to make all the decisions really on Steam Deck that were aimed at that audience and that served the customers who were already having a good time interacting with the games that are on that platform, on our platform. That’s really how we were making our decisions. We ended up with a device that visually shares some traits with Switch, but that was… it was kind of a fact about how we’ve proceeded in the design direction.
Gabe Newell, Valve’s co-founder, also adds the following about the Steam Deck philosophy:
I think Nintendo does a great job of targeting the audience that they have with the content that they have. And that’s going to be different. When you pick this up, it feels a lot more ergonomic for someone who’s used to playing with an expensive game controller, right? Because it’s bigger and bulkier than a Switch. And if we’re right, that’s the right trade-off for the audience that we’re looking for. Obviously, I mean, I think 85 million Switches have been sold. Let me put it this way: if you’re a gamer, and you pick a Switch, and you pick one of these, you’ll know which one is right for you, right? And you’ll know in 10 seconds.