Primarily in my life ive been a console gamer. Starting with the ps1 and owning every system released since. Never did much pc gaming even when i had access to a decent rig. For the past few years ive been a collector. Going for rare and cool retro games i always wanted to own. After about a year with the steam deck it all feel so… archaic? Like, i went and hdmi modded my ps2, but i find the idea of booting up pcsx2 on deck more appealing. I dont feel the need to have a new game in my hands physically, when i know its gonna take me months to play it anyway, i can wait for a sale, get it cheaper, play it portably with mods. Console gaming, especially in the last 2 generations, feels like a hinderance more than anything. Why would i want to be tied to one piece of hardware, with a dubious at best chance of carrying my games forward to the next gen every 6 years? The steam deck feels like its released me from the shackles of console gaming. I dont think ill get rid of my whole collection… but my ps5 and xsx have been doing a lot of dust collecting these days.
Anyone else feel the same? Or have i just had an existential gamer crisis?
It’s replaced my consoles entirely.
I got a Steam Deck to get away from the AAA/PSN/Xbox OnePass or whatever it’s called mindset, and I’ve never had any interest in PC gaming.
Consoles evolved the way cable TV did. Early cable didn’t have commercials; you already paid for content delivery by paying for cable. Now cable TV has wall-to-wall commercials just like air TV and you pay for cable also. The main reason I haven’t watched any TV at all in … decades.
That’s how consoles work these days. Sony, MS & Nintendo want subscription fees, shark cards, all that bullshit, on top of buying the games and the consoles themselves.
I tried to give my PS4 to a relative and even they didn’t want it. ‘Last gen’ blah blah blah.
My Xbox is a dedicated DVD player ever since my DVD blu-ray player kicked the bucket.
I just hope I recover my passion on gaming after getting mine. These last year’s I haven’t been able to hook onto a game for long times.
I’m just happy to get back to handheld gaming. I have a Switch but don’t use it often, usually only when traveling. Before that it was the GBA for handhelds. I’m loving the emulation on the steam deck allowing me to replay a bunch of nostalgic older gen console games and I’m not tied to my desk with my PC.
I’ve never really understood the appeal of collecting physical games. They cost SO much money second-hand a lot of the time, if they’re on disk, they better be in great shape, you need the original console in working condition, you need to store all those games in a storage shelf or something that takes up so much space, you need all those consoles to be plugged in to some sort of complicated AV switch system or something, and after all that, you get to play your retro game collection at glorious 480i 30fps, if that.
Or, you can put practically every retro game on a few micro SD cards, and boot them up on your Steam Deck or PC, often running flawlessly and with enhancements. Or better still, they have a native PC version!
I was a console gamer in my childhood and teens (Split time pretty evenly between Xbox and PS), spent most of my 20’s as a PC gamer but now in my 30’s with two kids I’ve basically transitioned wholly into mobile “console type” devices. I got a Switch about five years ago and played the crap out of that but ran out of “interesting, to me” games to play and when the Deck was announced I signed up basically immediately to get one and it’s been my go to device ever since. I have a Series X and an okay-ish gaming laptop (It has a 3060 and can play most games at medium to high settings) that I purchased to try and get back into serious gaming but neither worked out, the laptop was too hot and noisy and I hate having to take up a TV to use the Xbox if I want to be around the misses. But the portability and comfort of using the Deck just outweighs anything else. I love being able to pull up Cyberpunk, throw in some earbuds and play anywhere without my kids having to see, well anything, in that game but still get my gaming time in regardless.
So yeah, at this point the Deck has completely changed how I game and I don’t see that changing anytime soon, the convenience it offers just outweighs any other form of gaming out there, in my opinion.
I’m mostly a PC gamer since forever. However I used to have some handhelds here and there over time, and lately I had a Switch. Which I kept using less and less as I left the competitive Smash scene.
Now that I have a Deck, my Switch is accumulating dust while I just play wherever, whenever docked or not interchangeably, all with that one little jewel Valve has blessed us with.
Bro this is where it’s going. pay attention to linux. Valve is genius. The more freedom they give us the better its going to get.
There’s a lot of smaller pc games that I never pay any attention to because a game has to be really worth it to make me want to sit at a computer again after sitting at a computer all day. The steam deck lets me play those games instead of waiting forever for a console release.
Yup, Steam Deck Gave Me What My Nintendo Switch Was Missing, Freedom.
It’s definitely solidified two things for me: if I want to get a PC game, I definitely want it on Steam rather than any other platform (though I was already 99% like that anyway when it comes to actual purchases), and I don’t mind if I doubledip and get a Steam copy of a game when I already have it on console, especially for JRPGs where I can see myself using handheld mode to grind out stuff when needed.
My dock hasn’t arrived yet but I’m interested to see if I end up actually playing games docked with the Deck instead of just my old way through Big Picture with my PC hooked up to my main setup via HDMI. The performance will definitely be worse if I use the Deck but it might be more convenient, and performance/graphics won’t matter for most of the games I choose to play on the Deck anyway.
Exactly this. I have been gaming since the days of the Spectrum. Had Commodore 64, Amiga, SNES, N64 and so on. Since getting my deck, my PS5 and Series X are sat gathering dust and I’ve sold my gaming desktop.
I have an enormous back catalogue of games which I’m playing through including games going all the way back to the N64, which I just never got around to playing.
I love the deck, in fact I think it’s the best piece of gaming hardware I have bought since the N64. Valve have done a fantastic job and I hope they continue to improve on the platform and release future models.
I made a steamdeck a year ago in anticipation for starfield and once I realized the implications of a PC library that grows over the generations and playing cyberpunk on a top of the line PC, shutting it down, and then booting up my save on steamdeck in bed is amazing. My PS5 has been dormant for a year and I’ll never go back. The PS Portal just goes to show the direction Sony is going. I get it, the PS5 is for a budget minded gamer that wants a consistent experience…not me. I’ll be PC for life. Thanks Steamdeck!
No, but it gives me more options which I like.
I’m the opposite, have a 4090 and 4K oled 120hz TV. I was thinking the steamdeck was gonna bring new life into gaming but sadly it came with the haptic pads all fucked up lol. Returning and not getting another one actually because I won’t really use it as much as I thought I would.
I don’t have it yet but I’m already considering selling my Xbox Series X.