While Valve remains to lead in its own respect thanks to the Steam PC storefront and most recent Valve Index virtual reality peripheral, the firm plans to continue pursuing new ventures in different directions. Earlier this month, Valve announced the Steam Deck: a new handheld that utilizes many characteristics of PC gaming and squeezes it into a portable device.
However, when the announcement passed, users throughout the internet went on to compare the new handheld to be Valve’s attempt at a Nintendo Switch. Or, simply contrasting what one device do that the other cannot. But, Valve in a statement told that the Steam Deck was intended to be made for a specific audience and that is different than Nintendo’s aimed demographic.
Speaking to IGN, Valve designer Greg Coomer told that the Steam Deck is a follow-up for the already cultivated PC gaming market, but for portable access.
We tried to make all the decisions really in Steam Deck that targeted that audience and that served the customers that were already having a good time interacting with the games that are on that platform, on our platform. That really was how we were making our decisions…We’ve ended up with a device that cosmetically shares some traits with a Switch, but that just was… it’s kind of an artifact of how we’ve proceeded down the design direction.
However, Valve made the Steam Deck distinctly different from the Nintendo Switch intentionally in terms of how it offers its games. Valve programmer Pierre-Loup Griffais explains that there is an immediate difference between the two when in your hands. “Let me put it this way… If you’re a gamer, and you pick up a Switch, and you pick up one of these, you’re going to know which one is right for you, right? And you’re going to know it within 10 seconds.”
He also explains, “So I think Nintendo does a great job targeting the audience they do with the content that they have. And that’s going to be different. Like when you pick this [Steam Deck] up, it feels much more like the ergonomics for somebody who’s used to playing with an expensive game controller, right? Because it’s bigger and it’s bulkier than a Switch. And if we’re right, that’s the right trade-off to be making for the audience that we’re going after.”
Are you in favor of the Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch?
Source: IGN
