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?
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.