I’ve been heavily debating between Steam Deck OLED and Switch OLED. My initial thought was getting a Switch OLED, let someone mod it and then download games on it (I don’t care about Nintendo’s Online).
Then I got told it might be better to get Steam Deck OLED and use emulation on it for switch games.
Now I’ve been a bit of researching on both and it seems that Steam Deck runs Linux and that the emulation isn’t really as good as it is on the PC. I don’t have any knowledge on Linux either, plus most of my games are pirated (thus Steam Library isn’t really a thing for me).
Getting the Switch OLED modded going to cost me about €150 but then I’ve been reading that the games are mostly 30FPS locked and that using cheats and/ or mods is a bit of a hassle (similar thing with getting games on it through piracy).
Price wise; Steam Deck OLED going to cost me at least €680 while Switch OLED will cost me €350 (and when Switch 2 comes it might be on sale).
I was wondering what the opinions are on Piracy community here. Which one do you recommend out of the two and why, how true are the things of what I’ve been told and read?
Note; Yes, I would like to get the Switch 2 but since it’ll take a while before it can get hacked/ modded - I don’t want to get it. I refuse to pay €60-70 for each game while they’re like 7 years old.
I’ve got a couple of Switch games on my Deck. The whole process is a piece of piss. Would recommend.
You don’t need a switch, or any other console really, when you have a steam deck.
It’s super easy on the steam deck. You don’t need to know Linux. You boot into desktop mode, open Firefox, install emudeck by clicking on a link. Then you configure in there a bit and download roms - all pretty straightforward and easy. A noob can do it in a couple of hours.
Now that said - the steam deck is hit or miss emulating switch games. Most games work awesome. But not every game. It’s not clear to me if the hardware is a little too slow for emulation overhead, or if it’s more an issue between the emulator and the game. My take is it’s a bit of both.
Someone else will have to comment on modding the switch as I haven’t done that, but I bet once modded, it plays every game 100% fine.
Assuming my prior paragraph is true: if the ONLY thing you want to do is switch games - then I’d skip the steam deck. If you want to do OTHER things as well (snes, nes, all other older consoles, actual pc games that play on steam deck) then ya, steam deck all the way. Make sense?
Theres also the thing that there are different emulators for the Switch available, emudeck installs Ryujinx. It seems for some games performance can vary on the SteamDeck with different emulators, and maybe some games run better with something that is Yuzu-based, e.g. the Citron emulator. So if you are happy to experiment you could probably find a good solution for most games.
According to this list the switch currently has around 40 exclusive games. The majority of these I’m guessing are Nintendo games and will probably be ones that emulators prioritise working with.
For everything else you could want there is probably going to be a PC version or another console that could also be emulated should the switch version not work. The PC version will probably be superior anyway as switch games are mostly running in an inferior manner.
I dont think this is even a question that needs considering when you factor in the sheer amount of other game options you have for the steam deck whether you are pirating them or actually purchasing them. In my opinion you’d be foolish to get a switch, not least because Nintendo are a deplorable company and personally I think their first party games are shite.
The Steam Deck literally is a PC. If for some inane reason you can’t get it to do what you want you can install Windows on it.
I think the only reason emulation is “worse” on it than on PC can be that a desktop PC has more power. Almost all emulators in general usage are open source and have Linux versions.
There are also no problems with running pirated Windows games. By now the only games that are problematic on Linux are multiplayer games with kernel level anti cheat that hasn’t been configured to work on Linux.
The Steam Deck is better than the Switch in almost every aspect. It just doesn’t come with detachable controllers. That’s it.
So if you want a portable console with detachable controllers buy a Switch. Otherwise there is no reason not to get a Deck.
Emulating switch games on the steam deck works quite well, but sometimes you run into compatibility issues.
That being said, I completely finished both Pokemon Violet and Mario Kart 8 on it.
