We have some interesting news about how the Switch 2 was received.
We had reported on the strange fluctuations in Nintendo’s stock price as a result of the Switch 2 announcement. It seemed that New York’s and Tokyo’s stock exchanges didn’t quite agree on whether Nintendo had a good announcement or not. Since then, Nintendo saw their stock rebound in Japan, in fact reaching its lifetime peak.
As reported by NintendoLife, Switch 2 may have affected one of its competitors already. Steam data showed that sales of the Steam Deck briefly dipped after the Switch 2 announcement. From being a consistent part of the Steam ranking’s top sellers, it hit the lowest ranking it ever had since 2022.
As of today, Steam Deck sales are back to what it previously was so that all seems like it was just a brief blip. But is it fair to attribute that drop in Steam Deck sales to the Switch 2 announcement.
As the old adage goes, correlation does not imply causation. Just because the Steam Deck’s sales dipped after the Switch 2 announcement does not mean we know that one happened because of the other. While Steam’s sales data is useful, it isn’t enough to determine that there was a relationship between the two events.
But if we do have to go there, it should not be hard to admit that Valve is far from being serious competition against Nintendo in the handheld console front. Valve’s Steam Deck may be completely untethered, but its large size and weight means it isn’t really a portable device in practice.
And the flexibility the Steam Deck has in being based on x64 architecture may mean it can run more demanding games than the Switch, with better performance. But AMD’s custom Ryzen 2 chip doesn’t have the battery performance of the Switch’s aging custom Tegra chip. Of course, the same is true of other PC handhelds running on other x64 based SOCs.
If we were honest, the Steam Deck is the biggest fish in a small pond, and Nintendo’s Switch 2 is in a good position to offer the things Valve has been lax enough to neglect. Microsoft’s contract with Nintendo means the Switch 2 will be getting Call of Duty games soon, and that means Nintendo will be able to offer the portable online Call of Duty experience Valve doesn’t.
To be clear, we do want Valve to improve their Steam Deck to become better competition against Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, and others. And that means we should be honest about Valve’s shortcomings, unless you’re a fanboy who’s happy with the company being complacent. Nintendo didn’t actually get where they are today if they only listened to their fans, and Valve should be similarly discriminating.
