VIDEO // This summer 2021’s surprise event in the gaming world, Valve’s Steam Deck announcement highlights the current excellent form of the gaming nomad, whose offering has never been so great and bubbly.
There was a time, not so long ago, when some said that the wandering video game in decline, which had reached its peak in the mid-2000s, at the height of the Nintendo DS, and was doomed to a slow and inexorable decline. since then. In 2021, this prophecy seems more wrong than ever: not only do portable or transportable gaming platforms still exist, but they have never been as numerous and varied as they are today. It is probably not by chance that Valve decided in this context to launch the Steam Deck, its own machine dedicated to games on the move, a kind of hybrid between the PC and the “traditional” portable console.
Laptop PC, Console, Smartphone gaming or hybrid machine: there is something for all tastes, all budgets and above all uses. We could classify these different solutions by their degree of nomadism – a computer is obviously not suitable for the same situations as a smartphone and will provide little service to those who would like to entertain themselves during a subway or car ride – but this ultimately It is their degree of versatility that distinguishes them.
The computer and smartphone are, by definition, all-purpose machines and cannot be used exclusively for video games. Quite the opposite of the Nintendo Switch, the last representative to date, and the only current representative! – from the category of portable consoles in the most common sense of the term. With all that this implies in terms of a closed and restrictive ecosystem, but also extreme ease of use. It would also be terribly wrong to neglect the strength of Nintendo’s exclusive catalog with its Mario, its Zelda, its Animal crossing and others Pokemon, which makes it a machine of simply impregnable relevance for any video game enthusiast.
Between PC and console, Steam Deck is a perfect intermediary. From the first, it inherits a completely open software design that allows the user to install almost all the PC software of their choice, and thus find on the move all the games they already have on Steam or any other PC game store, without have to buy. again. Second, it would reproduce the simplicity and immediacy of use due to its design explicitly optimized for the game, both in terms of hardware and software (SteamOS operating system with native integration of the Steam store). It is this last point in particular that would allow it to differentiate itself from its predecessors such as the various GPD Win models that have never achieved success anywhere other than with a small niche of passionate hackers.
Among all these categories, which machine is for whom? We take stock with you in this video.