Nintendo’s Change 2 is official. We’ve seen a video reveal of the ultimate design, teasing a extra thorough announcement in April. And throughout the platform fence, the Steam Deck and its many imitators within the PC handheld house have by no means been hotter. So now it’s time for the inevitable, attention-grabbing headlines pitting them in opposition to each other. Which one is healthier? Which one will win?
Neither. Each. It doesn’t matter. This can be a dumb comparability to make, in an editorial article or a YouTube video with a goggle-eyed face and arrows within the thumbnail.
As a result of the Nintendo Change 2 and the Steam Deck, for all that they share in kind issue, are serving totally different markets and totally different individuals. As large gaming merchandise, each of them inform and affect the opposite. However these two merchandise don’t compete immediately, not in the identical method that, say, the Xbox and PlayStation compete. And even in the identical method that these consoles compete with the PC.
So I’d prefer to say, with no small quantity of self-aware apology, don’t hearken to anybody who needs to border this as a direct competitors. Let’s break it down.
The Change saved Nintendo
Nintendo launched the unique Change a bit over eight years in the past in 2017. And for those who weren’t paying consideration on the time, it was a huge deal. After the disappointing flop that was the Wii U, Nintendo got here out swinging, leaning on its unimaginable success with gaming handhelds to revitalize its core console enterprise and unify your complete firm, multi function product.
The Change wasn’t good. It was very underpowered in comparison with some other main console, it had critical points with its controllers, it didn’t final lengthy on a cost, and Nintendo hasn’t finished job managing its digital recreation retailer. However denying the Change’s influence and affect can be inconceivable.
Nintendo
The merging of transportable and residential console kind elements by way of the included dock was ingenious, even when it took the failure of the Wii U’s large screen-controller-thing to get there. Throw within the Change Lite to attraction to youthful gamers, who had been at all times way more engaged with transportable gaming anyway, and all of a sudden Nintendo was printing cash.
Throughout three fashions, the Change has bought 146 million consoles worldwide on the time of writing. Solely the PS2 and the unique Nintendo DS beat it for lifetime gross sales, and its nominal competitor the PS4 is method behind on that listing. It absolutely doesn’t harm that the Change began at a $300 worth level, which is dear for a transportable in context with the Sport Boy, however particularly reasonable in comparison with the PlayStation or Xbox.
The Change in all probability helped Valve make the Steam Deck
The Nintendo Change was such an enormous success that it was inconceivable for it not to affect the PC gaming market. However that’s a couched assertion. Whereas there have been just a few notable handheld units attempting to affix PC video games to the Change’s kind issue (or a minimum of its form), none made it into the mainstream. Even huge corporations like Dell (by way of its Alienware model) and Razer experimented with a Change-style gaming PC handhelds, however they principally didn’t transcend mildly attention-grabbing commerce present demos.
Till the Steam Deck. Valve lastly revealed its transportable PC, operating its home-grown Linux OS, in 2021. The Steam Deck resurrected Valve’s makes an attempt to create each console-style PC {hardware} and its personal built-in platform for PC gaming, all with the transportable kind issue of the Change. It may additionally simply dock to a monitor or TV, with wi-fi controllers or perhaps a mouse and keyboard. It was a smash hit instantly upon its February 2022 launch.
Steam Deck
However it’s essential to identify the small print right here. The Steam Deck was not and isn’t a direct competitor to the Change, regardless that they share a variety of design components. Certain, each of them are transportable recreation machines with comparable layouts, and the Steam Deck makes use of an built-in retailer that’s mainly the closest factor PC avid gamers should the Xbox or PlayStation shops. However that’s about the place the similarities finish.
The Change is designed with youngsters in thoughts, if not completely for them. It’s straightforward to make use of, laborious to interrupt, and the cartridges are even coated in a nasty bitter agent to maintain youngsters from swallowing them. (Which is a really cool contact, Nintendo, kudos.) The Steam Deck, regardless of beginning at a reasonably reasonably priced (in PC gaming phrases) $400, could be very a lot geared toward grown-ups. It’s a lot greater and heavier, and also you’re invited to open it up and mod it or restore it if it strikes your fancy.
Maybe extra pertinently, the Steam Deck is a full laptop, utilizing x64 {hardware} tailored from AMD’s built-in CPU-GPU combos designed for laptops. You possibly can even set up Home windows on it if you’d like (however don’t try this). The Change is a much more locked down and proprietary system constructed on Nvidia’s Tegra chips, an Arm system that was (on the time) virtually completely for smartphones and built-in electronics. Attempt to run something however Nintendo software program on the Change, and it’ll struggle you each step of the best way. It’s, in a phrase, a console.
iFixIt
For all of the inspiration that the Steam Deck and SteamOS take from the console world, Valve isn’t stopping you from doing mainly no matter you need with the factor, identical to a laptop computer or desktop. The identical is generally true for the varied Home windows-based imitators which have sprung up during the last three years, from Asus, Lenovo, MSI, et cetera. These are handheld gaming PCs, not handheld recreation consoles, a small however essential distinction.
There’s at all times been a variety of crossover between console gaming and PC gaming, and that’s by no means been extra true than at this time, when the Xbox and PlayStation are each mainly simply x64 PCs with a variety of proprietary software program. However for the reason that late 90s, Nintendo has stood aside from its opponents. Even when it wasn’t beating them — and it hardly ever was — it holds a really specific place that it’s carved out for itself. And that provides it a singular relationship to the PC as a gaming platform.
You purchase a PlayStation or an Xbox or a PC to play video video games. There are some exceptions — Sony specifically has some nice exclusives, regardless that it’s sending a variety of them to the PC. However you purchase a Nintendo console to play Nintendo video games. That’s at all times been true, and at all times been the first draw of its platforms.
The Change is a perfect secondary gaming gadget
The Change was no totally different, blasting out of the gate with Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Mario Odyssey and Smash Bros. Final shortly following, all experiences you’ll be able to’t (legally) replicate on non-Nintendo {hardware}. The speedy success of the Change additionally gave Nintendo a chance to shortly port in some nice video games from the Wii U that noticed much less play on that much less profitable console, reminiscent of Mario Kart 8 and Pikmin 3. Nintendo has steadily launched new and profitable video games for the Change, plus plenty of ports and remakes, all through its lifetime.
Nintendo has loads of devotees that solely care about Nintendo video games, and may depend on them to purchase new consoles and titles repeatedly. This core viewers has stored the corporate afloat through the leaner years of the GameCube and Wii U. However extra generalized avid gamers additionally see the attraction of Nintendo, and customarily purchase its stuff as a secondary system if they will afford it. So it’s fairly frequent, a minimum of in prosperous markets, to see a setup with a PlayStation + Nintendo console, Xbox + Nintendo, or PC + Nintendo. I’ve received a Change docked on my desk proper now, even with an enormous gaming desktop beneath it.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
With the Change’s attraction as a transportable and comparatively reasonably priced system that’s extra succesful than any mainstream gadget that got here earlier than it, this marketplace for Nintendo as an ancillary gaming platform solely grew. It grew a lot and so shortly that Nintendo was capable of appeal to the third-party builders that usually deal with it like a second-class citizen. Regardless that the Change’s cellular {hardware} is much much less highly effective than some other adjoining platform, you’ll be able to play all the things from hardcore video games like Darkish Souls to multiplayer twitch-fests Overwatch and Fortnite to indie darlings like Balatro on it. The Nintendo eShop, warts and all, is much and away the corporate’s most profitable digital retailer ever.
There’s a variety of crossover with the PC gaming market on that listing. However as soon as once more, I stress that the Change and the Steam Deck are distinct sufficient merchandise that they aren’t actually promoting to the identical prospects, or a minimum of not completely to the identical prospects. You possibly can’t play Zelda on the Steam Deck (not with out a variety of questionably authorized work and compromises). You possibly can’t play Elden Ring or Marvel Rivals on the Change.
A small quantity of avid gamers will need all of that, and be restricted to picking both a Nintendo console or a Steam Deck/gaming laptop computer/desktop/PlayStation. (I’d put an Xbox in there, if anybody was shopping for an Xbox in 2025.) However the far better variety of avid gamers will both be okay with a Change, okay with a special platform, or okay with shopping for each. And that’s not prone to change anytime quickly.
The Nintendo Change 2 and the Steam Deck are glad neighbors
PC gaming is extra affluent than it’s ever been in 2025, even when the business as a complete goes into it with a notable black eye. The Steam Deck is an enormous a part of that, and can proceed to be so if Valve’s newest strikes are any indication. However it’s value holding issues in perspective. Whereas PC gaming as a section of the market is greater than Nintendo’s very worthwhile chunk, the Steam Deck has solely bought just a few million items by estimate, an order of magnitude fewer than the Change even limiting it to simply the previous couple of years.
The Change was and is an incredible success for Nintendo, hanging out by itself path to defy and disrupt its console competitors. The Change 2 is perhaps a continuation of that success…or a disappointing follow-up, just like the GameCube and Wii U adopted the N64 and the Wii. However both method, Nintendo’s distinct place within the gaming panorama shouldn’t be a menace to Valve, the Steam Deck, or PC gaming as a complete. These platforms borrow from each other and profit from mutual successes. They’re glad neighbors, not feuding clans.
Willis Lai / Foundry
There are a small variety of avid gamers, and hopefully readers of this text, who might want to select between the Change 2 and the Steam Deck (or PC gaming normally). However that selection will come right down to what video games you wish to play and, way more pertinently, which one you’ll be able to afford. Lists of {hardware} options and specification spreadsheets will play a vanishingly small position within the choice.
Purchase a Nintendo Change 2, purchase a Steam Deck, purchase ’em each if you wish to and may afford ’em. However don’t purchase into the narrative that that is some sort of zero-sum prize struggle between huge companies. It’s a dumb argument to make, a fair dumber one to dwell on.
