Here’s Why I Ordered A Steam Deck

Kotaku recently penned an article about how they don’t see who would purchase a Steam Deck. I ordered my Steam Deck yesterday, and here’s why Steam Deck is for me. PS: You can preorder your Steam Deck from Valve here. Steam Deck will launch in December 2021.

What is Steam Deck? It’s kinda a Nintendo Switch “Clone” or “Rip Off” for lack of a better word – sorry, but it is – there’s lots of these clones out there – I have one from China for like $50 with some emulators and roms lol. BUT the one thing that makes Steam Deck different from these other Nintendo Switch like devices – Access to millions of games from the Steam Library – thousands of which I already own. The docking station will be sold separately – which is a bummer given how expensive the base units are.

Reasons Why I Pre-Ordered The Most Expensive $649 512GB Steam Deck:

I’m a gamer without PC or Console Bias – That is to say, I play games from all consoles, handhelds, PCs, mobile devices, whatever. I don’t care. I’m here for the games, thx.

Steam does have some questionable inventions when it comes to hardware which I’ve never purchased any of them myself – but you know who else has had questionable inventions in gaming – literally everyone? Nintendo’s Wii U flopped because people didn’t understand the difference between Wii and Wii U and the touch pad thing never took off. And Nintendo Switch – I love it so much, I bought it twice – the original and the lite – but my controllers are constantly getting sent back to fix drift and leaving me buying new expensive controllers – and Sega? Their consoles were amazing – and I deeply love all of them – even 32X and Dreamcast – and others that were “Flops” – And then there’s poor ill fated Sony Vita – what went wrong for the poor little Vita with a cult following of Otome and Visual Novel fans – for one thing – marketing and price point – and lots of other things – so so what, if Steam’s hardware has a “questionable track record”?

I already have a Steam account and over 1,200 games (1,273 to be exact).

How many Nintendo games do I have? Probably around 60? How many do I see owning within the lifetime of the Switch? Maybe 300? Max?

Yeah, some of the games I have purchased twice. I go back and forth between if I prefer handheld gaming or if I prefer my laptop (which might as well be a desktop since I haven’t moved it ((aside from actually physically moving to a new address about 2 weeks ago)) in like 6 months. So I did purchase some games twice – especially if they were on sale lol. For example, in the Steam recent summer sale, I splurged and picked up harvest moon mineral town again even though I have it on Switch too – there’s other examples I can think of – in the reverse, I’ve had Clannad on Steam for years, and decided to pick it up on Switch to enjoy it more easily / portably).

Now with Steam Deck, I don’t have to decide if I want to be Portable or if I want to be at a Desk… Or if I want to connect to a TV or other device – I have that freedom with one copy of the game and one client (Steam)

I will still buy Nintendo Switch exclusives and still love my Switch. Switch Lite is lighter weight and easier to carry (I’m guessing, I mean Steam Deck looks huge as heck and heavy and downright uncomfortable.) I mean the whole reason I bought Switch Lite even though I already owned a Switch was because the regular Switch overtime was cramping my little female gamer delicate hands/fingers/wrists. I much prefer the Switch Lite and only turn on original Switch now for multi-player fun – but that’s just me and my family/friends preference – your mileage may vary.

But now with Steam Deck if I want one save file and cloud saves (not all games support that – but most in fact do) – I can go back and forth comfortably from my bed or the couch to the desk to even on the road, outside, wherever I go.

I am unclear on how these games will be accessed outside the home – but with my cellplan or cable internet plan, I can enable hotspots (or use many hotspots provided through my cable plan, or free wifi hotspots (I know security risks). I’ll probably just stick to my phone hotspot). I do worry about lag/slow down from hotspot only wifi when outside the home. Especially in a rural area where I live.

But like I said above, sometimes I honestly do just want to “get up and stretch” or move to a different room, or see a different view for awhile – Steam Deck allows me to do just that.

Imagine if you will for a moment, the practicality of this little machine for LAN Parties – or playing games face to face with friends – like actual PC games – In the 90s – early 2k A LOT of people would lug around their huge-ass gaming rig PCs – Monitors, Keyboards, Tower Units – Heck, even now with gaming laptops – they’re still heavy – my 16 inch Razer (one of the lightest/smallest weight gaming laptops) is still probably about 14 lbs with battery and then there’s the cables and the mouse and other accessories – right? And once you’re at your friends’ house (or they’re at yours) or you’re at an actual convention or party of some kind – you’ll have reliable internet so the question of how will this perform on less desirable internet connections becomes pretty irrelevant. It’s literally a portable little PC Gaming machine – perfect for LAN Parties, or just taking to a friend’s house. And as you know, there’s tons of multiplayer PC games that we just don’t have on Switch or other handhelds.

So I think that’s a big gold star for Steam Deck right there – I know people like to get together to game – especially now with the vaccine and ability to get out and see our friends and families again. Those who game together stay together.

But that’s not all…

It’s speculated that Steam Deck will also allow you to run emulation – I dunno if I will try it – My Steam account did get hacked one time a few years ago – it was a scary experience. I hadn’t logged in in a year or so and so they had done some damage for sure. But Steam’s support was awesome and helped restore my account and now with the 2FA (it wasn’t available back when I was hacked I think) I feel more secure – nothing is ever 100% secure – but hey, it makes me feel more secure even if it’s a false sense of security in some ways lol. – Still I dunno if I’d load it full of roms and emus – so many viruses these days. I have a cheap as hell handheld that I bought on Aliexpress (that I will review some day probably) – that also looks like a Nintendo Switch clone – I legit only bought it for one game that came preloaded on it – one of my ALL TIME favorite games, Azure Dream – it came with hundreds or thousands of other roms and emus preloaded – but I can also add my own if I want to. I also bought a modded DS XL or something (I forgot the exact model) that was modded by someone on Etsy (their shop is no longer in business last I checked). He custom loaded the 3 DS games I really wanted – the trio of Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side games – probably my favorite game series ever – plus thousands of other preloaded DS games – for like under $350 – so no, I didn’t buy Steam Deck for emulation – and pay twice that price LOL. I also hear PSP or Vita modded is an awesome device for emulation – I just don’t really have a need for it? I have other devices for that? At one point, it was tempting to me to pick up a Vita, but now most of the Otome games have made their way over to a new home on Nintendo Switch.

I’m not a “hardcore” gamer? I do know Steam Deck can play hardcore games – but, in MOST cases, those aren’t my cup of tea. No, I’m a casual gamer. A casual gamer, who already owns a Switch and a Switch Lite, and DS, and pretty much every other console/handheld ever since the first 8 bit NES…. What’s one more “console” or device? I bought them all – except the last two Xboxes…. If Xbox would make a sequel or something similar to Lost Odyssey, I would buy the latest console JUST FOR THAT ONE GAME – seriously – one of the best RPGs of all time. That’s the type of gamer I am – the type who will buy a device JUST FOR ONE EXCLUSIVE GAME. Yup that’s me.

You might be like OMG that’s too expensive, that’s a waste of money – but I see people drive $50,000 luxury cars – when a $20,000 car gets better gas mileage (and gas is approaching $4 again (thank you Biden :(). I see people drink expensive alcohol drinks every night – or go out to expensive dinners (I’m guilty of the food thing – I don’t like to cook often lol). Take expensive vacations, play sports that require special expensive equipment and gear – whatever – just for the love of their hobbies.

So what’s $649 at the end of the day?

Plus you know, you don’t NEED the most expensive model – because you can use SD cards or external storage – I just prefer as much on board storage as I can get – but that’s just me personally. My Laptop also only has 512 GB – and it’s not much – I bought an external 8TB hard drive that stays plugged in and run my Steam games from there.

For Nintendo Switch – also not much storage space 32GB in both the original and Switch Lite – but like the Steam Deck it can also use SD cards (thank god). I have a 2TB card in both of them I think. (I buy a lot of digital games lol).

Lets look at the numbers:

Nintendo costs $299 for the original or $199 for the Switch Lite – both come with 32GB of onboard storage – but if you like digital games – which I do – you’re gonna need a memory card – let’s say at LEAST 500GB to get started, and those aren’t cheap! Best Buy and Game Stop are both selling those for $129 – and that’s a “sale price” so let’s add $299 + $129 = $428 – or $328 for the Switch Lite.

To be fair, that amount of money would only get you a 64GB Steam Deck, so yes, Nintendo is still much cheaper and more affordable there. Because 64GB is still not enough space to install many games. So you’d still need some SD cards.

Who has the bigger game library? Clearly, Steam does. Kotaku argues that many people will prefer Switch due to Nintendo’s exclusives. – Yes, Nintendo’s exclusives are fun – I own many myself such as Animal Crossing, Pokemon, Mario Party, Mario Kart, Mario Tennis, Zelda, and on and on (I’m terrible at Smash Brothers so I don’t own that one lol. My friends have it though and I do play it sometimes).

I do like I can get games I can’t get anywhere else on Switch – I mean that’s the whole reason I buy consoles or handhelds is if they have exclusive titles I want.

OK but what are some examples of games I love on Steam that aren’t on Nintendo (or any other devices) Here are a few off the top of my head:

• Princess Maker – Nintendo has 2 of them – Steam has 5 of them (and I own them all already – and on a side note, really wish someone would make an English version of Princess Maker 4 (it’s my favorite.))
• Summer Pockets – a visual novel by Key – the creators of Clannad – might some day land on Switch – some day – because Switch does have Clannad (and I’m pretty sure Switch has Little Busters too – I couldn’t get into that game for some reason).
• Crusader Kings – No switch ports of any of those 3 games
• Mabinogi – haven’t played it in awhile – but it’s cuuute
• Ragnarok Online
• Tree of Savior
• (Lots of MMORPGs actually – so if you like MMORPGs – Steam Deck is for you)
• Wildermyth – recently released on PC – may some day head to Switch – but who knows – enjoying this one
• 100% Orange Juice
• Agarest War series – It’s a little hentai-ish at times – but still an anime RPG series that Switch is missing
• To The Moon and Bird Story
• Sometimes Always Monsters – They do oddly have the other game Always Sometimes Monsters (I forget which game is first lol – I have both on steam and beat the first one and barely touched the 2nd one yet.).
• Battleblock Theater
• Ame No Marginal – Rain Marginal
• Da Capo – Easily one of my favorite series – no lie. I know Steam doesn’t have the whole series – but they have Da Capo 3 R – and I purchased the others from directly from Manga Gamers – beat the first one years ago – and have yet to play the others yet but – easily, very easily – one of the best visual novel series ever – top 5.
• Harmonia – another visual or kinetic novel
• Himawari – another visual novel
• Higurashi – horror visual novel

So as you can see, Steam Deck is good for girl gamers who play a lot of visual novels or Otome games too – although admittedly Switch has a ton of Otome and Visual Novels too 🙂

The list of games I enjoy not available on Switch goes on….

• King’s Quest (all of them – much love!)
• Inherit The Earth
• Willy Beamish – I actually didn’t see this on Steam – but it’s on GOG – it remains to be seen what Steam Deck allows us to install or play. I have heard that we can install other software and even other operating systems – but that could be a rumor?
• Gabrielle Knight
• Sam and Max
• Other old-school “point and click” style games

• Sonicomi – absolutely love that dressup game.
• Littlewitch Romanesque
• Lucky Rabbit Reflex and Edge of Elsewhere – 2 fun Otome Games – quite similar to Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side
• Magical Diary Horse Hall and Wolf Hall – 2 more fun otome games
• Dandelion Wishes Brought To You and Nameless – both Otome games by Cheritz – they are both fantastic

• The Sims – With all of my custom content installed so they won’t be ugly – I just cannot play Sims without CC (custom content) – Man that alone is a huge incentive for Steam Deck casual gamers right there.

• Utawarerumono
• Yakuza (all of them)

Those two are available on steam or playstation (or probably Xbox) but now can be in a handheld console the size of a Switch. – Niiiice.

Literally, thousands of other games.

So for people like me, who already own these games, and prefer buying digital over physical copies of games, Steam Deck is a no brainer – I have my reasons for preferring digital – such as don’t worry about getting scratches on the discs, or breaking the cartridges, or losing the cartridges – don’t worry about (physical) space to store all my games, etc – I know physical has advantage in that a.) it’ll always be there if the game ever gets pulled or the digital service goes belly up – and b.) it looks nice in a collection – if you have (physical) space to display all your games – but for me, I love digital – I do own a fair amount of physical too though. Shrugs.

And when it comes to digital, Steam is already my preferred provider – yes they don’t have everything – some stuff is direct from JAST, MangaGamer or GOG or other providers – but they have A LOT – probably MILLIONS of games.

Steam Deck is not “JUST” for hardcore gamers – I think I illustrated plenty of examples of games on Steam that Girl Gamers and Casual Gamers will love that aren’t on Nintendo Switch.

Nothing’s going to take away my love for Nintendo Switch (or any of my other consoles and devices).

But why slam the Steam Deck like that?

Why you gotta hate, bro?

Why not both?

/shrugs 🙂

Tell me, are you getting a Steam Deck? Which model did you buy (or would you buy)? And what are your reasons for wanting a Steam Deck?