Will Nintendo go out of its own way to make the Switch 2 a Steam Deck competitor?

When the original Switch came out nearly eight years ago, almost no one knew they wanted console-quality gaming on the go. It turns out we did, and the Switch became Nintendo’s best-selling console. Five years after the Switch’s launch, Valve has given PC gamers a way to play those games anywhere with it Steam Deck portable gaming device. with Switch 2 Revealed this week, it’s possible that players could get it all in one package – if Nintendo allows it.

The Switch 2 could eventually become the ultimate all-in-one console Portable gaming device. It can play console games and other PC games while still being the only device that can play Nintendo games. The only drawback is Nintendo’s insistence on keeping its ecosystem closed and unnecessarily complex.

It’s true that we don’t know much about the Switch 2, as it was only revealed on Thursday. However, there are some things we know for sure. The first is that it will be more powerful than the original Nintendo Switch. We don’t know to what extent, but if it’s anywhere near as powerful as the Xbox Series S or Steam Deck, it can play almost any game on the market and will likely play every new game for either home console or PC over the next few years. .

That means a big jump: the original Switch was on par with the PlayStation 3 when it came out in 2017, so it couldn’t handle many of the big-name, so-called “AAA” games that can be found on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. Or PC.

But it doesn’t end there. Thanks to the progress Cloud flowThe Switch 2 can also run a wide range of games from day one without requiring any developers to port their games. You have Xbox Game Pass Which allows subscribers to play Xbox games on their phones, tablets, and other portable gaming devices via browser streaming. So there’s no need for an app, just access the browser and that should be enough to play Xbox games on Switch 2.

This is also the case for GeForce Now. It’s a streaming service for playing PC games over the cloud, and it also works with the browser.

This means that once there’s an accessible browser, a Switch 2 owner will likely be able to play hundreds of Xbox games with Game Pass and thousands of games with a GeForce Now subscription. This goes double for all the Switch games available through it Backward compatibility And all future games for Switch 2.

A potential library like this could easily give the Switch 2 one of the largest libraries available for a console, and would include one thing that other consoles and handheld game consoles don’t have easy access to: Nintendo games.

This will only happen if Nintendo allows it, however, as the Mario maker doesn’t have a track record of making things easier for third parties to involve themselves in the company’s ecosystem. Nintendo doesn’t want to make things easier if it requires the use of more than minimal technology — or poses a threat to its family-friendly reputation.

That’s why it has codes for swapping friends, instead of just sending friend invites, and Online voice chat is only available through the app. Nintendo is also a company that is very protective of its hardware, so it is Ongoing litigation against Switch emulator developers.

There is an extraordinary amount of potential with the Switch 2 that could allow Nintendo to dominate the entire gaming industry and not just consoles. But perhaps Nintendo doesn’t want to give up any control.