Games

You arent their target market, nobody on Lemmy is. Their target market is pre-pubescent kids and their parents who want their kids toys to "Just work" the parents who just buy the games on the shelf at the store, and the associated merch.

They make great games and to play them you need their hardware, why would they dilute that? This way they get to hit you twice and control their own market pricing. I know "emulators and piracy" right? Those people werent buying shit anyway. Why accomodate them?

Why would they? What Nintendo is doing works really well for Nintendo. They’re over 100 years old (which is considered a young company in Kyoto!) and are not about chasing the best and shiniest, but what works best for their continued long-term survival. They will always do their own thing and at their own pace.

Also their games already play infinitely better on the computer. They could actually have my money if I could buy em as applications instead of popping em into Yuzu!

You wanna look at sales numbers and say that again?

The Switch may have sold more units last month than the Steam Deck sold last year.

That said, Nintendo would not lose any money porting their games to other platforms. Their whole deal is pursuing "incomparable advantages." Which from 2017 until 2022 included being a handheld gaming console, like a tablet with buttons. Still not sure how they were alone in that market.

The big reason their gizmo flies off shelves is that it's a generic compiler target for existing multiplatform games. There's some hardware-specific cheats involved, but it's generic smartphone hardware, so ehhh. Wolfenstein looked awful until Panic Button googled "ASTC," but now it's as good as 720p can manage, on $200 worth of neon plastic.

The PS5 and Xbox Whatever are not in that market. They are not competing. And despite being in competition with each other, Microsoft knows they can make a shitload of money selling their games on the other generic AMD laptop, because even with a horrific 30% cut as the standard, 70% > 30%.

What Nintendo's going to make another zillion dollars on is some wacky bullshit that makes everyone go 'why the fuck would they do that?!' and categorically does not work on anyone else's hardware. Sony had the chance to do that with VR and whiffed. Microsoft, AR, same deal. Nintendo themselves screw it up about half the time. But they're sitting on a pile of money you could mistake for Mount Fuji, and honestly, Steam's biggest advantage is that all their direct competitors are incompetent.

The steam deck is way too bulky and battery life is way too short to be a viable handheld for mass market rather than just enthusiasts. Also I will pass on having a console with DRM like Steam rather than physical media.

Nintendo doesn't sell their consoles at a loss so that is one reason why they won't put it on PC even though it results in the worst experience.

I disagree. A Switch Lite is much better for a 6 year old than a big and clunky Steam Deck. I own a Steam Deck. It’s a fine device. But Nintendo works with their own hardware. I’m not even sure we would have a Steam Deck if Nintendo didn’t make the Switch and showed how much demand there is for dedicated handheld devices. Also Nintendo is better at taking risk with hardware designs than Sony and Microsoft. Other consoles makers just keep making the same box, just a bit better every generation. If anything Sony and Microsoft should just give up their hardware, and make PC games. Nintendo at least take some risk and try to do something different on the hardware front.