Random: Valve's Latest Steam Deck Trailer Briefly Shows A Switch Emulator

Seen alot of gameplay already, even people playing zelda with raytracing and stuff.

Valve knows the driving factor for this devices sales are people who want to pirate games. Noones pretending otherwise and it's rather pathetic.

Valve: releases trailer
Nintendo: So you have chosen death…

Giving how Nintendo treats piracy very seriously, and how they are extreme with treating piracy seriously, they probably won't like this and want to do something about it, at least in some way.

ooh, Nintendo v. Valve. Here we go

I’m interested to see whether Nintendo sues over this, as it appears valve is encouraging emulation on steam deck of their competitor software with this video

I can see emulating the PS3/360, and even to some extent now the PS4/Xbone, but consoles that are actively being sold right now? That just kinda feels bad.

@Rika_Yoshitake
😂

Speculation dude. How can you call it a fact when you have no idea if what you are saying is true or false?

Oof… that’s not good…

@Rika_Yoshitake
I think the thing driving sales is the fact you can play your steam games on the go. Despite how often it is talked about among hardcore gaming fans, the vast majority of people don’t even know how to emulate a game, much less think about it.

Valve should be ashamed. They clearly tried poking the bear, so honestly nobody has an excuse to defend this when Nintendo sues them.

I'm thinking next year I may be playing Tears of the Kingdom on a Steam Deck docked.

@Fizza
Nah, the game is good but it isn’t worth paying an arm and a leg for. Considering how it isn’t being actively sold and it costs so much, I think emulating it is fine. Really the only emulation I consider wrong is when it is pirated new releases.

Emulating is perfectly legal. Don’t pirate games but feel free to rip your physical copies.

@Schizor88
Yeah I just use mine to play Peggle and My Singing Monsters

I hope Nintendo go after them.

Emulation of old games is one thing. Emulation of current hardware and games is just wrong.

If you can afford a Steamdeck, then you can afford a Switch. Anyone that is playing Switch games on a Steamdeck is just wrong.

Also, why are they making so many Steamdecks when the thing so clearly needs refining? Design a better model and make a load of that...

I'll wait to see how this plays out before I even consider supporting Steamdeck.

I have to get me a steam deck. Not for pirating, but it's so good looking.

@MarioFan432 What people do with the device after they've purchased it is up to them. ZERO, Nintendo can do about that.

@Fizza Blasphemy, obviously. To the gallows!

@MarioFan432 @nocdaes @zeldawakening Emulators are not piracy, and they are perfectly legal. Downloading and sharing ROM and other game files with others, is. Creating the ROM or ISO files yourself is also legal as long as you don’t share the files with others. So Valve isn’t doing anything wrong by promoting an emulator program. Now, if they showed footage of Mario Odyssey gameplay and then had a link to a ROM site or started to distribute free ROMs, that would be different.

I’m honestly surprised the author of the article doesn’t touch on this fact. NL is usually pretty on top of stuff like that. It’s just gonna trigger people that don’t know the diff between an emulator existing and a downloaded ROM.

@nocdaes,

Exactly, you can see why people emulate stuff that is not available any other way, but games like Breath of the wild, which are current games on existing hardware should be protected.

Marketing as an emulation device is fine. Emulation is legal as long as you do it yourself and don't give it out to the public. However, we all know that's not really the case and most people tend to just pirate games that way. Nintendo is really gonna hate Valve for this, but the only claim they have is a correlation vs causation argument.

At least show Ryujinx and not Yuzu.

I can already hear Nintendo’s lawyers cracking their knuckles.

@nocdaes Nintendo has been selling the Switch with defective controllers for 5 years now......

I for one love the idea of having all my paid Nintendo games to the Steam Deck, however in practice I already played those games so they would just take up valuable space and for the ones I haven't played - If I didn't play or finish them on the original console what are the chances I would by emulating it to another? Low, very low.

Not to mention the cost and time involved with the ripping all those games to roms. I have some many games on my backlog that its just not worth it. Hell I am getting free games left and right from Amazon, Epic and even Steam.

When you emulate a Switch, Mario sounds like Chris Pratt.

@nocdaes You hope Nintendo "goes after them" for showing various software that is supported on the Steam Deck?

Steam Deck is quite literally a portable PC, you can install almost any software and Steam isn't responsible for what people have already been doing for decades. It doesn't matter if it's on Steam Deck or a PC, people will emulate and pirate games.

Not all of us drink the Kool Aid you do.

@PepperMintRex another clueless person with no idea how the legal system works, lol. Ever seen Nintendo go after the people who create the emulators? No, it's the sites that host the ROMs. Nintendo can't do a damn thing about this, thankfully.

Talk about opening yourself up to secondary copyright infringement liability. Advertising the means through which infringement takes place on your platform is classic Grokster/Napster.

“The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It's by giving those people a service that's better than what they're receiving from the pirates.”
-Gabe Newell

@blindsquarel about 70% of this comment section is overwhelming proof of your point.

@Fizza Me who uses my old console BIOS's to run emulators:

Perfectly Legal

@GuyProsciutto In fairness, if a Steam Deck article is posted here, it's only purpose is to bait the Nintendo fans who are threatened by the device to come together and bash it in unison.

It doesn't matter that Steam Deck is super niche and not really comparable to Switch, it vaguely resembles a Switch and is popular, so it must be destroyed.

I wonder what it's like to be owned by a company and not even know it.

@Astral-Grain Ditto to Switch owners, us Steam Deck enjoyers are eating well tonight

I'm generally a fan of emulation and the ways that games can be enhanced by the flexibility of them. I modded my switch so that I can dump my cartridges to yuzu and play stuff like Metroid Dread at 144 fps. Heck, I bought BOTW on Switch and then got the wii u version running on CEMU to have a better experience playing it. I've done that a few times where I will buy a copy of a game where the legal port is all messed up (most often to PC) and then emulate a different console's version to have a good experience.

To use Gabe Newell's famous quote, "piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue." Whatever is the easiest way to do things, that's the way that pirates are gonna do it. So while I see the argument about how it might not be a great idea for Valve to promote emulation, at the same time, if I had a Deck and a Switch, I might consider trying to get my games running on the deck to have everything in one place.

Yuzu is, of course, an open-source emulator

So.. it's an open-source. What's the problem?

@Miu The problem is insecurity.

@The_Flume

And a toaster of internals for about that time as well.

N has to get off their lazy butts and get a successor out. I'd much rather play Breaking of the Weapons emulated in decent quality over the dreck the Switch is now.

It's a portable and needs to hew to a faster upgrade cadence with lower prices.

emulation is legal, yes, maybe yes, but as long as you have the original hardware and software, especially the recent ones, especially since you can resort to having backups (allowed but not authorized); if you have only the emulator of a recent console and you do not have the original console, they are automatically implying that you may be stealing a product, that is, you have and use something for free for not buying the original product and in case you have paid for emulator and roms of recent consoles , now yes, you are totally incurring in piracy, because these things are not legal copies (unauthorized in short) and therefore, you incur in a crime marked in the laws.

@SakuraHaruka "you incur in a crime marked in the laws."

Tell us you don't know what you're talking about without telling us you don't know what you're talking about.

@sword_9mm Yeah, the thing that bothers me with Nintendo is once their on the verge of financial failure like with the Wii U, they humble themselves but once they find major success like with the Switch they start to get a bit complacent and don't really do much innovative aside from their usual Wii controller gimmick tricks they like to distract us from everything else that might be an issue like their lackluster online offerings.

@Rika_Yoshitake I really don't think it is. If you wanted to pirate switch games, there's a much cheaper way to do it, you'd just mod a switch, which you can also stuff with numerous emulating. No ones paying this kind of money just for emualtors.

The way I see it, we can put it this way too - If Steam Deck can even emulate Switch games (some might run even better than Switch), that says a lot about Switch's hardware.

Bear in mind making an emulator is really difficult and need a quiet powerful PC to get the best possible result.

I didn't see anything illegal or questionable or Nintendo in that trailer 🤷‍♂️ Was expecting to see Mario Odyssey running or something, but no.

In other news... My SteamDeck arrived in the mail last night!

@Miu Please don't imply the Switch is old old hardware that can easily be emulated by a current-gen PC or Steam Deck.

The hardcore fans are insecure enough as it is, please don't point out the obvious to them.

I'm ok with the Deck existing. It means NVidia and Nintendo will have to roll their sleeves up for the next console and will stop them being complacent. Hope folk enjoy playing on it. But they aren't the first American company to play dirty. They won't be the last.

@sketchturner Congratulations on your new Steam Deck!

Would it be inappropriate if I suggested you to install EmuDeck?

@Astral-Grain the bait somehow works every time, not even surprised. What I don’t get is the copium intensifies each time despite all these horrible anti consumer decisions nintendo has been doing for a bit.

It plays switch games better than they run on switch & isn't illegal if you bought the games & dumped the roms lol

@Astral-Grain

Then, I have no right to comment here?, tell me

@GrailUK I'm here for articles like this, by the way.

Anyway, this isn't playing dirty. This is Valve knowing their audience. Nintendo uses the same strat!

@Zoda_Fett I think the reason the panic/copium is intensifying is that every day that goes by without a Switch 2.0 announcement, the hardcore fans become more and more nervous all the other companies have released their next gen consoles, while Switch is still in last gen.

I understand this insecurity, but it's no reason to blame all the other companies because Nintendo is dragging feet getting their next iteration out.

@SakuraHaruka Not at all, please continue.

@Astral-Grain
"Not at all"
Why?, explain me why.

@BloodNinja You know, these are fair points.

See you around.

@Astral-Grain yeah that absolutely makes sense. I think those people just have to understand that competition is a good thing(not that the steam deck is really competing with nintendo anyways).

And here we go again. As with every article regarding emulation, once again 90% of people have either no clue or don't care that emulation and piracy are two completely separate Things, that work completely independent from each other, in both directions.

You can emulate without doing piracy, and you can play pirated games without emulating them

@BloodNinja (Welcome back) No they don't lol. I haven't once seen them reference another console manufacturer...erm...ever in their advertising. Certainly not lean on one as a selling point to their own business. Too busy having Rik Mayell take the micky out of Nigel Mansell. Not sure what you are referring to.

@nocdaes you can emulate without stealing. It's a lengthy process but I'm doing so right now. I don't feel the need to carry 2 systems so why shouldn't I rip my game files from their cartridges and transfer them to my Deck? Also, I have huge hands and the Deck is substantially more comfortable to game on.

@Waka_the_Prophet the problem is that Nintendo doesn't care and they have filed frivolous lawsuits before. The only difference here is Valve can afford to defend themselves

Valve knows who butters their bread 😆

@Fizza I've tried it, it's very buggy, only games I could get working are Pikmin 2 and Rhythm Heaven Fever. Had to change a couple of settings when switching games because they're from different systems, but yeah. Tried TTYD and it lags and has visual bugs. Tried asking for help online, no one seemed to care. :c

@nocdaes hmm. What if you own both and want to emulate your purchased switch games on the SD?

You really can get all your games on one system at this point with it.

@Nikhogan sues them for what exactly?

I got the deck this week and I'm still been playing my switch more. It's heavier than I thought it would be and I'm a pretty big dude with big hands so not sure how others like it. If anyone is buying it for switch emulation it seems stupid to me since I modded switch is 10x better with the same grey legal areas you'd deal with here. Steam deck is great for people with a backlog of PC games on Steam, I get that. But that's really the only reason I'd be worth it. There's so much crossover on indie games and others with Switch already that I don't see the reason to double dip just for emulation.

I think this is pretty likely to be a mistake. It only serves to encourage literally all other video game companies to alienate them given that piracy hurts the entire industry. I expect it not only to be taken down, but for them to issue an apology. It could also just be a PR stunt though

I love my Deck. Great at Steam titles on the go, and sure, it emulates. A lot of things. Really well. If Nintendo didn't want their current gen console emulated, they should have made it more powerful under the hood. I love my Switch, but I my own purchased Switch titles look and run better on another device. Higher resolution and 60fps. Community graphics packs. Etc.

@nocdaes

Well I mean it actually plays Switch games better than the Switch can.

Games with dynamic resolution scaling run at max resolution and games with unlocked framerates that struggle on Switch hit a locked 60fps on Steamdeck.

And that’s running through an emulation layer. It’s pretty nuts and kind of shows how the Switch needs a redesign with more powerful hardware.

@Fizza

Considering Nintendo won’t ever rerelease it and physical copies are stupid expensive these days I say go for it.

Without emulation I could have never played Panzer Dragoon Saga. I was not fixing to buy a Saturn and then spend 1400 bucks on a complete copy of the game on EBay.

@ALinkttPresent Is it really a "stunt" to showcase all the features of the device, including the use of open source software like emulators? It's a portable PC. It can do everything a PC can do.

I don't think they're even trying to provoke Nintendo, they're just advertising what their product can do. I also don't think anyone could have predicted showing a 1 second flash of Yuzu during a showcase trailer would trigger hardcore Nintendo fans to demand legal action.

Insecurity is a powerful thing.

My message is directed at people who are sensitive to resolution and framerate:

Nintendo is really naive thinking they could keep delaying that switch pro.

When your games run far better on an emulator set on another portable device, I think it's time for an upgrade.

It's an underclocked Tegra X1 released in March 2017. It's time for a hardware refresh, period. A refresh that wouldn't prevent several years of coexistence between switch and switch pro.

The success of the SD is not only a potential issue for the switch pro, it's proof that people DO care about a more powerful portable/hybrid console despite what some keep saying.

Nintendo's next hardware is by far my most awaited piece of technology, TV, nvidia, steam deck 2, iphone 14, I don't care, I think a powerful console with PS4 level of performance (but modern APIs) in portable mode would be absolutely crazy.

@OrtadragoonX @Royalblues There is currently no waiting list, so you should receive a deck in 1-2 weeks.

@AstraeaV Same. Best version of the game.

@Astral-Grain

Oh that’s changed?

My bad. My information is out of date. I thought they were still hard as hell to get.

My apologies for the incorrect information. I was out of date on Steam Deck availability.

Deleted the comment.

@OrtadragoonX Nah, it's understandable, I frequent the Steam Deck subreddit so quite a few people have been reporting really quick turnarounds for the past few weeks.

I didn't realize the official announcement was only yesterday, I didn't mean to imply you were giving misinformation or anything, my apologies if that is how it appeared.

I deleted my comment as well lol

@wicktus

Yeah, Switch2 should be pretty baked at this point. N's just milking the 'supply chain' excuse cause well; it's N.

I mean the Switch is fine if one really like pixel metroidvania games but it's much too long in the tooth. Get the Switch2 out there asap.

@Astral-Grain Opps my bad.

@wicktus I kinda doubt it. Their current business model is very profitable when they can cut development cost releasing subpar 1080p games at 60$. Powerful hardware will increase demand for high quality games. Just look at Mario Strikers (and Pokemon too).. but as you said, Nintendo is naive if they think they could keep delaying it.

Good on valve, if nintendo insists on being as anti- consumer as possible its only natural for others to step in, and I'm completely on their side.

Showing a logo for "Yuzu" emulator doesn't count as copyright infringement.

And Nintendo can't do a damn thing about emulation on YouTube anyway, as Linus Tech Tip's has proven:

I've been dying to play Super Mario 35 again and this way I don't have to jailbreak my Nintendo Switch.

@YANDMAN I'm not talking about what a person does with their device but rather the promoting of emulations (and the subtle promotimg of roms), very out in the open media in a way it can be taken down, because it's Valve itself, I think it applies here.

@yuwarite I think that video will be fine, but I'm not convinced Valve can promote emulation as part of it's marketing and there's nothing Nintendo can do about it, which they may want to do something about if, at least is some way, if they catch on and can.

People will cheerlead this but chances are Valve have most likely made life worse for the people who use Yuzu as this will further push Nintendo into pulling a page out of Sony vs Bleem/VGS and using awful DRM like Denuvo.

@GrailUK To be more specific, I mean that Nintendo studies their audience and caters their advertising to them. Each company will show different stuff, but in the end, the strategy is the same: study the audience, then cater the adverts to them. Valve knows people are clamoring for the Deck due to emulation, so that's just their way of catering to their fans. That's all I meant.

@Miu Of course, but the fall are quick and hard in this industry.
The wii was in the exact same scope: tons of sales hardwares and software, cheap development prices..but suddenly people disengaged from the wii and sales fell sharply.

Of course games like BOTW2 will sell like crazy and right now it's still a big dynamic but it will, at one point, decrease and usually it declines fast IMO.

And at one point third parties won't be able to keep sacrificing their games and time for the hardware, not everyone is Hello Games who released years of free No man's Sky updates and no micro-transactions.

@MarioFan432 Valve can totally promote emulation. Take for example Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. On any of those systems, you can emulate the other using a virtual machine. So you can run Windows on a Mac, or run Linux on Windows for example. It's done in technology businesses around the world. Nobody bats an eye about emulating entire OSes.

Thing with Yuzu, by itself, it's totally fine. And Valve is simply advertising "hey, this thing runs on our OS." Because Yuzu is built from scratch, Nintendo CANNOT take legal action against the emulation creator, because it is now their own official program data. They also cannot take legal action because an emulator runs on an OS. Otherwise, Microsoft and the community that update Linux would also be sued by Nintendo, because emulators have been running on Windows, Linux and Mac for literal decades. That hasn't, and will not ever happen. I highly recommend you read up on your local laws about the subject, because you seem to be missing a lot of info!

And why take umbrage with it, now? Nintendo Life has promoted several emulation devices in their articles. Do you want Nintendo to sue Nintendo Life?

"Why did they add Denuvo to Switch, we just advertised our device with their games."

it's an icon of an emulator, there's no possible way nintendo has any legal grounds to do anything. if a nintendo game was shown running or art assets of a nintendo game were shown in the icon, then there could be a case for copyright/ip infringement. this is simply valve showing they support users doing whatever they want with their hardware. including removing steam entirely from the deck, it's supported windows for almost a year now. would be nice if nintendo supported removing their proprietary store from the switch and supported installing android, better yet, booting android off of sd card like steam deck can do with windows. having access to android improves the switch, im not talking mobile games, im talking using discord directly on the switch, video and photo editors for your switch game captures that are much more feature filled, plus emulating backups of your own games from past nintendo systems.

im not trying to argue the deck is better than the switch or vice versa, handheld pc and handheld console markets don't exactly always overlap, and where they do, theres plenty of usefulness in both devices simultaneously, im merely pointing out that valve's approach is much more consumer friendly even though it sabotages their 30% steam store cut.

@MarioFan432

-Valve releases a product trailer that includes a ~1 second glimpse of Yuzu, an open source emulation software installed on Steam Deck, among many other software that can run on the device-

Rational People: It's cool to see all the features of the device, including the ability to run other software besides games. This makes sense because it's a portable PC.

Insecure Nintendo Fans: They just declared war and they're so dead once Papa Nintendo hears about this.

@BloodNinja "Nintendo Life has promoted several emulation devices in their articles. Do you want Nintendo to sue Nintendo Life?"

Good gravy man, you're firing both barrels today and I'm definitely here for it.

@BloodNinja I'm pretty sure there could be a case that the promotion and marketing of this material, in this particular marketing, leads to subtle thoughts of people buying a steam deck to emulate Nintendo games, it's very subtle but there imo. Which is considered losing money to Nintendo. Not the issue with fair personal use on emulation. I'm pretty sure that case is also handled differently depending on country. But maybe it's too subtle and so I am actually wrong. shurgs

Nintend Life isn't a company behind a competitive, to Nintendo, device to gaming that allows you to play Nintendo games on a device that technically has no permission to be played on, outright marketing a emulator that works well on their steam deck, with, possible, purposely subtle hints towards something else, but again I don't know for certain, as I don't know all the laws and I'm not paying a lawyer to look through a lot of complex laws about it. What I do know, it at least looks fishy.

And I'm not arguing what other people can or can't do for personal use, which is different and probably is legal, or at least a grey area. I am just saying the looks of prompting emulaton like this is fishy and in your face as so.

I also know emulations themselves are legal already, or I assumed that from last time I checked. But the promotion of it, in marketing, on a steam deck, like that, is suggestive.

I'm also not saying what other people should do for personal use, or what people should do when / if they buy the steam deck.

@HeHateMii if it was advertising a rom site or showing official Nintendo software running in yuzu nintendo might have a decent shot, but a logo of a clean room reversed emulator is not going to be nearly enough for a lawsuit to go past a summary judgement and actually be brought to discovery and then trial. nintendo would get laughed out of the court room.

The video is now private. Sounds like Nintendo sent them a swift cease-and-desist.

Let's see.... do I want movie butter popcorn while I watch this unfold or maybe some kettle corn? Either way, this will be interesting to watch!

@MarioFan432 I'm fairly certain that the whole point of marketing in general, is to be suggestive. Again, there's nothing wrong with it as that is what every company will do with successful marketing campaigns.

@Astral-Grain LOL Thanks

@Shepdawg1 That'll be interesting to see how it turns out! It's also possible there were errors in the vid regarding other details, but who knows!

@MarioFan432 Valve has now edited the logo out of the video anyway.

But it was likely only because, A. It was most likely a mistake, and not something Valve were marketing as a feature, and B. because of the online uproar of comments like the ones in this article.

It's perfectly legal to modify a Switch and physically backup your Roms and the needed files, for use in the Yuzu emulator. Thus, Yuzu is perfectly legal when used in this context.

@Shepdawg1 Looks like they just re-uploaded the video and removed Yuzu.

Nintendo wins I guess?

That's a wrap for this article, we can all go home now.

@Royalblues @blindsquarel It's gotten much easier lately. The 64GB model is available for purchase, with units shipping in about a week. The other models are taking about a week or two from the time you put a $5 deposit down until you receive the email instructing you to complete your purchase.

For instance, I put my $5 reservation in on September 19, got the email on the 29th, my unit shipped on October 3, and it arrived on the 5th. I ordered the 256GB model, and I live by New York City. The timeframe between reservation and purchase has been decreasing even since my order, but where you live could determine delivery times

Use of an emulator is not piracy or is it illegal in the US or Canada. There are plenty of precedents and Nintendo doesn't have a legal foot to stand on. Roms that you do not own or Roms you share with others are piracy. I personally have roms of every switch game i own (34). I own both...Switch for Nintendo exclusives and Steamdeck for Indie/AAA. It's also refreshing to have my library of games go with me into the future. I am still bitter about digital 3DS games and Nintendo's plans for them...Valve on the other hand allows me to play my 23 year old digital copy of Half Life 2 still

@BloodNinja While true about marketing and marketing campaigns, that's kind of off the point. It's what is suggestive here and the way it's suggestive and what's suggestive that looks really fishy. Right or wrong, way to go in hanging on the word "suggestive", changing subjects, or pretending you didn't get what I was trying to say... or something like that? Anyway, that alone doesn't mean I was right, so no point in both of us talking further about it or playing around with a particular word in a comment. It's either fishy and is fine or wasn't fine at all, in some way.

@NateDZD
I have actually been thinking about getting one for either my birthday or Christmas. Probably not Christmas though as I have a feeling I am getting a phone.( Parents have been asking me if I would be interested in one). It would be cool to have a deck to play indies, and third party titles. I would kill to have Jedi fallen order and Spider-Man ps4 on the go.

This won't go well for nintendo

@blindsquarel Spider-man runs like a dream on Steam Deck.

I was also surprised to find several PS exclusives now too like God of War, Quantic Dreams Games, and Death Stranding, which is also stunning to play.

Back when the PS Vita took a nosedive, I never thought this kind of thing would be possible, but here we are. Great time to be alive.

@Prapper Respectfully disagree.

Yuzo primarily is used as a means to infringe copyrights (copyrights owned by Nintendo). I agree that this ad alone is not enough to survive summary judgment — but it certainly gets Nintendo in the door. Specifically, it allows Nintendo to plead in its Complaint that Valve is liable for contributory infringement because it encouraged its users to infringe Nintendo's copyrights by advertising the use of Yuzo (a ROM whose primary use is to infringe Nintendo copyrights) on its Steam Deck. Such allegations certainly get past a Rule 12(b)(6) Motion and entitle Nintendo to discovery on (i) all data showing infringing and non-infringing uses of Yuzo on Steam Deck; and (ii) all ESI relating to Valve's knowledge of the use of Yuzo on its Steam deck for infringing purposes.

@nocdaes I own Breath of the Wild on Switch. Purchased a physical copy at a retailer (probably Target, but I don't remember exactly). I actually would prefer to play it on Steam Deck. When I travel, I only have so much room in my backpack with my laptop, tablet, power banks, and e-reader (not to mention my neck pillow, a hoodie if I'm traveling in the summer because those planes can get cold inside, snacks and a water bottle). If I'm leaving a piece of tech behind, it's going to be my Switch. I currently have a total of 6 Switch games. There are over 150 games in my Steam library, over 60 in my Epic Games library, and about 50 in my GOG library. I'm one of those weird people that likes to be able to access all of my games from one device, especially when I'm not at home.

Also, I find the SD much nicer to hold. My hands get fatigued after playing the Switch for more than 45 minutes. Not the case with my SD.

@HeHateMii Yeah, that is what I thought. It's the suggestive marketing as I was saying, isn't that creating a case it's helping Nintendo loose money? It's at least fishy. But idk for certain the laws on it. It might not be enough, but it looks bold to me and not something that should be done by them, really.

I am not against Valve in any personal way or Steam Decks though.

@MarioFan432 I also have nothing against Valve. I own and really enjoy my Steam Deck. Just a strange move on their part. Even if it does not lead to liability or legal action, they are playing with fire. Seems unnecessary to poke the bear that is Nintendo's legal team.

@HeHateMii That's how I see it and find it weird people want to reply to me, pretending that's not there and not the case at all. Lol. And then use my ignorant on exactly what the law says, to say it's all fine. I don't know, but it isn't that great of an idea to have this in the marketing for the Steam Deck, imo.

But I'm glad you like the Steam Deck and I don't dislike Valve or anything myself.

I am not some angry Nintendo fan, like some comment said, either. I am a fan of a lot of Nintendo games and I like Nintendo in a lot of ways, but I'm not angry with Valve or anything, I see the article, also think it looks fishy, and leave my opinion and comment, and from my knowlege this doesn't look that great to me.

But yeah, I don't want to be the cause of stuff, turning into, too deep discussions or arguments, so I think I'll just leave the replies to me alone now.

That was almost guaranteed to get taken down, and I wouldn't be surprised if they fired whoever captured the footage. Even if the emulator itself is technically legal, you don't just spit in the face of another big company like that.

It's funny, if Nintendo Switch 2.0 were announced, no one would care about this minor video mistake that Valve immediately corrected 5 hours after this article was posted. They even confirmed showing Vuzu was not intentional.

But because Switch is so old it can be emulated on any current-gen PC, Nintendo fans will be talking about this inexcusable insult for weeks.

I look forward to the next article inciting more rage among Nintendo fans for absolutely no reason.

Honestly the amount of people that are actually emulating Switch games are probably low. The Switch and its ganes are still selling extremely well.

@Astral-Grain

I'm sorry, you haven't answered my last question, ok, that's fine, no need to answer that question, however, I kindly ask you not to be rude to me, because, and I apologize for thinking so, but the way I You have answered me in the beginning and not answering my last question was something rude.

I noticed it like this because I see that you don't like my answer, either because I said something wrong or literally it wasn't to your liking; whatever it was, I am open to corrections, because I know that I can be mistaken, and if tell me what is my mistake, I investigate and I can accept the correction that you mention to me.

However, I did not see it that way in your answers me, and when you answered me the second time, you gave me guidelines so that I really understood that I would shut up and no longer give an opinion, and that is rude, and especially more by not answering my last question .

Ok, I'm not going to continue with this because I gave my point and that's all, however I ask you, if you don't like what I write, if it's for something wrong, go ahead, you can correct me, I repeat it, I'm open to trying to see the mistake and try to correct it; and if you don't want to help ok, you can ignore me, no problem, for that there is an option to ignore users, I have no problem if you ignore me, but I kindly ask you to be respectful with me, ok?

Next time you try to be rude to me, I'll use the report option, please, let's not get into a more serious problem.
Thank you for reading and understanding.

@SakuraHaruka Forgive me for neglecting you.

If my opinion of your comment bothers you, please ignore me.

Still, seeing this only reinforces that Nintendo needs to step things up. They're going the way of Bethesda, where the fans will continually take things into their own hands to make it right.

@wicktus None of the Switch models on sale currently use a 2017 chip, the Tegra X1+ released in 2019. If you don't care about the increased battery life and you only care about raw horsepower, that's a perfectly valid preference to have, but I find it a bit short sighted of certain people to not acknowledge it at all

@BloodNinja It's still piggy backing. Nintendo don't do that.

stuff like this is not an accident.

@Astral-Grain how long does spiderman run on the deck ? maybe 2h? can't imagine much more.

actually i wonder how old you are. is it important how old a system is? does everyone always needs the latest tech? do current energy prices not tell you something about the consumer generation we live in? it would be good enough if all systems would be twice as long on the market as they are. Fun doesn't increase with better tech anymore since you can in theory do everything with current tech. every 2 years a new phone, a new console, a new pc, a new tv... this is going to stop you will see

@Fizza I just got a Steam Deck and loaded TYYD on it, plays like a dream. The frustrating thing is if Nintendo released it on Switch I would gladly pay for it but since Valve are the ones giving me an option to play it portably that’s where I’ll play it.

I just love seeing blind Nintendo fans seethe, cope and get uppity over emulation lol

I haven't taken the plunge on emulators yet with SteamDeck, but it has quickly become my daily driver. Getting Battle.Net and the Heroic Launcher running properly for WoW and Rocket League was a big game changer. And Sony treating the system like it's a Vita 2.0.

That is pretty bold of you Valve. I'd be surprised if this didn't end up in court with the way Nintendo runs to a lawyer if someone sneezes and it sounds like a tune they have copyrighted.

I've never had any problem with emulating thanks to the Robin Hood mentality though.

@crazybenjamin
They both share the same performance within the margin of error, there are many benchmark out there, we are not talking of 1 extra fps here...
It does have better battery life thanks to the 22 to 14nm shrink but you know it was first and foremost changed because the 2017 soc had a critical security flaw.

The 2017 SoC and the mariko revision have the same performance in game and my point revolves around performance.

Mariko has no real relevance in that aspect, sorry, I'd even say it's worse, they could have added an overclock with Mariko given it consumed and heated far less !

@jojobar Please feel free to demonstrate your insecurity further, it just highlights the Switch's weak points compared to other consoles.

For example, the Steam Deck can run Spider-man at 60FPS in either handheld mode or desktop mode.

The Switch, by comparison, cannot run Spider-man at all.

@wicktus You saying that your point revolves around performance is the thing that I wanted to address in the first place: I'm well aware that Mariko performs the same, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a 2019 chip that genuinely improved an aspect of the Switch experience, even if it's not the one that you wanted. Nintendo wanting to patch a security hole doesn't change that fact either.
I'm not saying that you have to appreciate the increased battery life, but if you're specifically going to draw attention to the year that the chip releases, then including the revisions that you don't personally care about would go a long way towards providing a more complete story.
Besides, let's face it, in the alternate universe where Mariko was overclocked for a Switch Pro, people would use the Switch's comparatively low battery life as a point against it when comparing it to the Deck

Pretty funny

How unprofessional. I guess valve needs to try and tap into a market 100million strong, but this is sort of like saying " hey you like stealing? come do it on our platform"

for the record. Yes I am aware that emulation ISNT stealing. Yes I use emulators. Yes I'm sure there are plenty of people like myself who use emulation perfectly legally the way I do, but you must admit that YES most people DON'T, and they download these games illegally. After all there is no way of cleanly extracting them without hacking and/or modding.

"Look you can steal games from an actually talented developer while we milk Portal for the next 100 years"
Honestly we need a law change that makes emulation for systems currently in active sale illegal.
You can argue its not wrong if you buy the game first but realistically how many do that? 1/100 maybe and I'm being generous.

@Ratmasterd21 Game emulating isn't stealing but all game piracy is emulated.

@HeeHo now a days yes. back in the day no. I mean you can still get reproductions of retro stuff online pretty much anywhere. But I get what you mean and agree with the sentiment.

@HeeHo Interesting take.

If you think Valve is bad for "milking" Portal since the game released in 2007, please have a seat while I break the news that Nintendo has been milking poor Mario since 1983, among others.

@russell-marlow
I've always liked that Gabe quote because it always feels relevant.

its one of the reasons why I'm pretty hung up on the whole virtual console thing since i like the idea of having older games available to buy and its replacement doesn't allow players to do that, alongside that whole limited digital thing with fire emblem and 3d all stars it feels like Nintendo are almost hesitant to sell their older games.

also one of the reasons why i am hoping that we get a successor to the switch is because of how currently purchasing games on switch can feel like a gamble, there are even some exclusives which can have trouble hitting a stable 30fps 720p and with ps5/xsx it means the power gap is even larger making it harder for third parties.

though as mentioned in a previous topic im not sure what the situation is with the chip shortage currently but from what i gather there has been a lot of progress when it comes to mobile chips so a successor could potentially be a big jump in power while keeping the same form factor/heat/power efficiency which is definitely exiting (again if they have the successor keep the "switch" format)

@GrailUK
Im definitely hoping we get a switch 2 especially considering how far those Nvidia chips have come since the original.

Though when it comes to companies throwing shade things definitely feel milder than the days of the console wars, especially the sega and Nintendo battles (especially in america)

though in the end it turned out that when Nintendo and Sega joined forces some amazing things ended up happening (Mainly F zero GX)

@SonOfDracula

> Creating the ROM or ISO files yourself is also legal as long as you don’t share the files with others.

Technically its not... personally I'm pro-emulation, I prefer to emulate (esp if it runs better with my PC, even if I bought a physical copy), but there's a grey area with ROMS. You're right emulating isn't illegal, but making roms is regardless of if you distribute them, you just will never get caught unless you do because literally who cares. Its legal to convert something, for example, turning your disc into an iso that functions on both console and PC disc drives, or ripping all contents of the disc entirely to a husk and having its iso file to run on PC, but having the disc and the file would be illegal copying.

A lot of romhackers do the former, hack their main disc and make it usable on multiple devices, and edit the same disc and upload a patcher for whatever method you choose, that's just fair use of your licensed product, but if you're copying the licensed product you're copying the license to use it too and that's where you run into the grey area part of ROMs where you're still doing part of the illegal distribution process just not fully.

I feel like most Steamdeck owners comment on here to piss off Nintendo fans, hahaha.

As soon as I saw the title of this article I knew it would be filled with whiners that don't have a clue of how emulation works.
Emulation is perfectly legal by the way assuming you're ripping your games, it's piracy which is bad which even then is a minority of people.

So no, Valve is not getting sued, Nintendo could throw a tantrum and copyright their videos at worst but thats not going to stop people from emulating on their steam deck.

@Would_you_kindly so how exactly do you go about dumping your own roms? Just curious

@HeeHo That’s literally factually false. The vast majority of piracy with Nintendo games takes place on modded systems. It’s just a million times easier.

Unfortunately, emulators themselves are legal. Their usage becomes pretty gray though.

According to some, ideally it's okay as long as you're ripping your legally-owned games, but we all know that not that many gamers know their way around an emulator, and of those, even fewer have the capability and knowledge to rip a physical game copy. The prevalence of digital game copies only further grays the issue of owning unofficial digital copies.

I have no beef with the Deck but let's be real: With emulators becoming more and more user-friendly these days, even the technically-average gamer can now emulate their console of choice. The Deck is definitely reveling on its emulation capabilities (albeit unofficially) and is definitely being used for piracy quite often, more than its defenders are willing to admit.

@Fizza Dolphin runs it rather well. I'm playing Super Paper Mario on it right now.

@Mgalens Yeah, but when did Nintendo have a go at SEGA. I pretty much remember it being one sided lol.

@HeeHo Making emulation illegal specifically for active systems would be really difficult to justify. If rights holders have a right to active systems, why don't they have them to inactive ones? Why do they lose their rights when the stop developing for a system? And it would tricky for the law to define an active system.

I don't understand why people feel they have the right to pirate or emulate old systems but not new ones. The argument made is often accessibility. Older games are not rereleased and we literally cannot play them. But you don't have a right to play a game, do you? You have the rights to the things you own and if you have no way to own something, or you don't want to pay insane prices for a retro game on ebay, then you can't play the game. Having no other option doesn't give a right that doesn't exist.

For the record, I am in 100% support of emulation and piracy but I think the discourse around emulation is full of contorted arguments and wishful thinking.

@calbeau "The Deck is definitely reveling on its emulation capabilities (albeit unofficially) and is definitely being used for piracy quite often, more than its defenders are willing to admit."

It's strange to imagine some Nintendo fans are fantasizing that Steam Deck owners only buy the console just to emulate old Nintendo games. Nevermind the thousands of amazing current-gen games they can play instead and nevermind all the other amazing consoles it can emulate.

You're also blaming one company for something that has been happening on PC for at least 40 years.

I should tell you the world does not revolve around Nintendo, but I know you won't hear me.

@GrailUK
Nintendo throwing shade was definitely a lot rarer though Nintendo's MO back then in the US seemed to be more edgy in terms of things like gross out or provocative ads (including some which definitely wouldn't fly nowadays)

Though i dont really remember seeing many of those kinds of ads here in the UK but then again Sega seemed to be very popular here. and some of the more infamous ads from nintendo didnt seem to air here (i forgot whether we got that amazing smash bros ad)

Got to love the Valve fanboys coming out of the woodworks here with that copy Pasta of that Gabe quote as if it was a holy scripture lol.

That statement has long since been debunked. Piracy still happens to this day and it’s not some ancient game or “I TOTALLY have this game guys” that emulation defenders will shout out, but literally brand new Nintendo games that didn’t even break street date yet.

Sorry but there isn’t anything “easier” then “free” for leech gamers and they will choose “free” over “cheap” any day of the week as long as the “free” option is still readily available.

@Astral-Grain This exactly. I bought a Deck on the back of having a powerful handheld for modern games and it having a huge back catalogue of games of all generations ready to go. Switch is my favourite console of all time purely for the mix of portable and home console and Valve offered what is essentially a much more powerful Switch (with some caveats) at a great price and I bit. No regrets.

The emulation side of things was a complete afterthought and not even close to the reason I bought the thing. I’ve since installed dolphin and t’s added even more value to it but emulation honestly didn’t factor into my decision to buy one at all.

Based Valve, and nothing illegal about showing an emulator, they didnt even show a game running on it, so it's funny to see people thinking that Nintendo could even try to sue them for something that they dont own, lol.

But hey! Who knows, maybe the devs of the emulator could try to sue Valve for using it to promote Valve's product without their consent.

@HeeHo Meh, we need laws to make emulation even more accessible.

@Astral-Grain Are you sure it was me who didn't "hear" you?

It's strange to imagine some Nintendo fans are fantasizing that Steam Deck owners only buy the console just to emulate old Nintendo games. Nevermind the thousands of amazing current-gen games they can play instead and nevermind all the other amazing consoles it can emulate.

Not strange at all to imagine. Some really do think that. I don't, though, nor did I give any indication I did.

You're also blaming one company for something that has been happening on PC for at least 40 years.

I didn't single out Valve for that. The Deck was the topic being discussed, so inserting the PC into that is pointless. Kindly point out where I blamed them for the emulation problem.

I should tell you the world does not revolve around Nintendo, but I know you won't hear me.

No need to tell me. I already knew that, so that brings us back to your question: Was it I who didn't "hear" you, or the other way around?

Nintendo does its best work when they're sweating bullets. And when they're not sweating bullets, they're outright anti-consumer. Let 'em sweat.

@Arawn93 Want to hear a joke?

Nintendo Switch Online

And btw, just because we wanted to use a quote to appropriately describe how to be more consumer positive doesn't mean we want to "fanboy" for our favorite companies, I'm looking at you who's projecting pretty hard right now.

And also, how many times have I heard people here posting that Miyamoto quote about: "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad."

@Mgalens Yes, when Nintendo is threatened by competition it pushes them to do better. And everyone wins in the end, the company and the consumer.

@BongoBongo you have to have a jailbroken switch & have custom firmware installed

Nintendo of Japan would not like this at all, you could go to jail for piracy there. At this point Valve might have burned some bridges, probably irreversible. Is it worth poking down on one of gaming giants? Such disrespect.

@Rika_Yoshitake this is the most ignorant take I've seen on this topic. No, piracy is absolutely not the driving factor in why I, or anyone else I know, bought the Steam Deck. Why would we need to pirate games on a PC when Steam games are dirt cheap literally ALL THE TIME? Recently I sold my Switch copy of DOOM to get Splatoon 3, and then I was able to get both DOOM and DOOM ETERNAL on Steam for half of what I sold the Switch cartridge for. Is the Steam Deck an attractive option for emulators? You bet. I can finally play Phantasy Star 1+2 Plus or Mister Mosquito on the go... and I never have to worry about scratching the discs on what are both highly valuable games on their respective platforms. But is emulation, or "piracy," as you put it, the reason I bought my deck? Hell no. Not mine, and not anybody else I know who got one.

@Astral-Grain exactly. I finally have a way to actually play Cyberpunk 2077 without having to sit in front of my TV. In a world where I have two jobs and (soon) two kids, that's a miracle.

There's so many pirates in this comment section I expect to see the Royal Navy show up.
Pay for your games people, you're not Robin Hood in some noble cause against the big bad corporate overlord Nintendo, you're just a dude too cheap to pay for your entertainment but too entitled to admit its wrong.

I see comment section is pretty much just those that choose to steal games using the gray area of emulation laws to justify stealing modern games as usual.
I echo @HeeHo pay for your games.

@fenlix would be ironic if developers for a Switch emulator got pissed for someone using their work without permission.

That's a surprisingly d ! c k i s h move on the part of Valve. Tasteless af

@BloodNinja Imagine going to a Nintendo-centric gaming site just to read the articles that aren't related to the Switch, while at the same time commenting on nearly every story related to the Switch.

@nessisonett Since you used the word literally, do you have anything to back up what you said?

@MichaelBurns I loved Mister Mosquito, I haven't heard about that game in years.

The closest thing on the Switch is Gal Gun 2, except instead of playing a flying mosquito, you play as a tiny hentai lady with a gun and your clothes disintegrate whenever you get damaged.

It's not quite the same lol

Also, congrats on being a (soon to be) parent!

@a1904 You don't need proof or statistics to see this. Just imagine both paths, really think them through and then realize one is far easier than the other.

Route A:
1. "Modify" a Switch
2. Download games
3. Install games and play them immediately because they were designed for this device.

Route B:
1. Buy a current-gen computer or Steam Deck
2. Research and install an emulator you think is good
3. Find and download games for the emulator
4. Find and install any additional files needed to run the games (This is a real thing)
5. Troubleshoot settings until you can get the games to run
6. Tweak the emulator settings further to achieve the desired FPS and performance
7. Now you can finally play, though you'll still need to tweak emulator settings now and again

@Andy_Witmyer Did I wrong you in some way? Why are you jumping down my throat?

@BloodNinja I'll delete my comment about the ban thing, I dunno what that person is on about but I feel a little responsible.

@Astral-Grain Dude no! You're fine. And I was just about to reply to you because wow, you're fighting a good fight! It feels like in the evening, more people are trying to swat you down, but you've got the moves!

And it's HILARIOUS that so many people cannot see the difference between emulation and ROM pirating. They are totally different things, and it feels like the more you try to explain it, the more it bounces off the frontal lobe!

@MichaelBurns Exactly the right take on this subject. Anyone else that is talking this nonsense about piracy on the Steam Deck is trolling, hard. Nobody in their right mind would clutch onto a Nintendo Switch unless they are REALLY die-hard for the exclusives. We literally have a better handheld option, now. EVEN without the prospect of emulation, the Steam library is decades deep. Mario Odyssey on the go? Pff. ELDEN RING on the go!!!! And other such things.

@BloodNinja Lol I don't consider it a fight, but all voices should be heard, including those who don't like the taste of Nintendo's boot polish.

The mental gymnastics of those saying it's okay to pirate old games but not okay to pirate new games - that's a favorite of mine to watch in action each time it gets brought up here.

@Astral-Grain Indeed! Well hey, I hope you have a great night. I just finished a few hours of training and I'm thoroughly dead. You be well

@BloodNinja That's very kind, you have a great night also!

Playing Switch games legally on SteamDeck is incredibly idiotic. The emulation is a hit or miss, BOTW is ***** unless on CEMU - don't ever believe these SteamDeck dudes who said they actually bought the game on Switch lmao. People know.

Basically, you need a hacked Switch to even legally dump those games in the first place. So what's stopping them from playing these games on the hacked Switch itself, with overclocking and modding available vs tweaking needlessly on SteamDeck?

In the end, it's just bonafide pirates who are too poor to buy the games, trying to convince people they didn't drop their pants for everyone to see.

More importantly though, vampire survivors 🧄✝️🗡️

@Astral-Grain thanks! I’ve got one now but we’re cooking up number two soon

@MagnesG "Basically, you need a hacked Switch to even legally dump those games in the first place."

The term "legally" eludes you, I see.

@Astral-Grain ELI5

I shall do my best to fulfill your request.

Oh hello @MagnesG, did you have fun at kindergarten today? Did you enjoy the lunch I made you? Good. That's good.

Okay, now I want to talk about the word "legally". See, when you use that word, it means that a government of some kind ("government" are the people that run military and collect taxes) deems a certain act as acceptable.

The opposite of legally is "illegally" which means that someone is doing a certain act that is not acceptable. When people do illegal acts, they can be fined or arrested, or even taken to jail for many years.

Wow, that was a lot of learning today huh? Now go on upstairs and take a nap, I'll be up with your juice box shortly.

@MagnesG I'm going to switch back to "adult mode" now because there are new points I'd like to make about what you said.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but is your point saying that it's because people are poor, that is why they bought a Steam Deck and pirate games?

Nevermind that the Steam Deck is $400+ and the Switch is only $299, what brand of substance did you consume to make this fantastic conclusion?

@Astral-Grain Are my statement wrong? Are you implying that you can dump Switch games legally on normal Switch? Or anything else? Back it up just explain the point, teacher, instead of the fluff.

SteamDeck is an investment for some. Like most PC players playing on a potato pc, they ought to consider pirating every now and then since they don't have the means. $400 incredibly cheap given the hardware, which Valve already subsidized.

@Rika_Yoshitake nope... it is to play steam games... i have 3 switches and a steam deck, no need to piracy. You should not judge everyone when you don't know the whole story

Some people already boast enjoying the still woefully PS3-locked Tales of Xillia on their Steam Decks. Tales of Xillia, Carl! But by all means, let's emulate modern and widely available portable hardware on modern and less available portable hardware instead.

@MagnesG "SteamDeck is an investment for some. Like most PC players playing on a potato pc, they ought to consider pirating every now and then since they don't have the means."

By mentioning that a "potato PC" can emulate a Switch game, you're also implying Switch runs on potato hardware.

This whole "Switch owners are wealthy and responsible while Steam Deck owners are poor and criminals" take is really unimaginative, do you have any other hot takes to offer or will that be all?

@Astral-Grain You can't seem to answer others' questions, only analyzing others. Lack of love maybe? Misunderstood others' point and now proceed to shoe in your whataboutism takes? Such miserable way of living.

I don't have any problem calling the Switch akin to potato pc, even then that's not even my point. I'n referring to poor and cheap mentality instead of focusing on having a good time. Really, your poor reading comprehension needs some upgrade.

@Astral-Grain I know you’re a resident Steam Deck warrior but i’m starting to question if you ever even owned one from some of the lies you’re spreading in this comment section.

“the Steam Deck can run Spider-man at 60FPS in either handheld mode or desktop mode.”

Steam Deck can’t run Spider-Man close to 60 even at the lowest potato settings with FSR enabled in its portable mode, what are you talking about? The most deck can muster on lowest settings is an open framerate which goes ballistic from 30-50fps all the time, at which point you just lock it to 30.

Steam deck is absolutely amazing - I love mine - it blows the switch out of the water wrt power and most importantly ergonomics. Handheld play on switch was awkward to me without satisfye / hori pad and they weren’t perfect. It truly is an amazing machine.

BUT - moral arguments aside - it does not play the latest Nintendo games perfectly. If you want the true Nintendo experience - which let’s face it is why many people buy the switch then you absolutely need a switch console and for those fans NOTHING will beat a Nintendo console and rightly so

@Punisher67 yeah, Steam Deck is powerful, but whoever says it runs Switch games better than an actual Switch is either lying or is on a massive cope spree, at most it can run Switch games comparatively and even then it’s a stretch.

BOTW is unplayable, Smash Ultimate is constantly dropping bellow 60fps, Forgotten Land constantly gets micro fps drops, Age of Calamity doesn’t run any better than it does on Switch, it goes between 20-30fps all the time etc

@Waka_the_Prophet Please share how you DUMP your legal games from cartridges on your Switch. Using your stock console? Without bypassing security measures (which is illegal by itself)? I'm very curious.

Well, I hate Steam so I will just keep playing my Switch and the odd PC game on my laptop, through gog. Which I hardly ever do.

I could see Nintendo's Lawyers getting involved and blocking sales of future Steam decks if Valve doesn't ban the app from their app store. There is one thing about emulating older games like SNES, but emulating Nintendo Switch games in any form is highly illegal.

@Astral-Grain Valve is responsible for the content of their promotional videos. That's the issue. Not the existence of the software.

Everyone defending it with "oh I just play the games I already have". Guess what? No-one believes you! Pretend all you want, whilst contributing less, and taking away more from the industry you, allegedly, love.

I guess you could always defend yourselves by the fact you likely never play the games! Isn't that what Steam is anyway? A means of collecting 100s upon 100s of games. You never play them. They just sit there.

I guess that's fine the Switch games people rip off don't play properly on Steamdeck. You're not actually going to play them anyway.

Enjoy your vast gaming library of misery.

I'll stay right here in the brilliant magic of enjoying a single game in exactly the way it was intended to be played.

And to all the "oh they can't tell the difference". Keep fooling yourselves. If you are naive enough to believe everyone owns or owned the games previously, then that's your problem. Do not start laughing at everyone that lives in the real world and knows that the opposite is true in the vast majority of cases.

I wanna love the Steam Deck, but stuff like this really puts me off. Sure, emulation is legal, but the amount of people who actually go through the effort of going the legal route (dumping their own ROMs/ISOs, getting their own BIOS etc) is I'd say 5% of all people who emulate. The fact Valve is promoting emulation of Nintendo's hardware in their ad is pants.

PS. Docks are now available for the Steam Deck and to replicate the full Switch experience you have to pay $399USD for the consoles, $89USD for the dock and another $60USD for a Bluetooth controller (odds are you already have one if you have a PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox). The cost of this thing is bonkers as now we can actually account for the dock as part of the cost you are paying $488USD for a Steam Deck to do what the Switch does at $299USD for the base model. That is almost $200 more than a Switch to do what the Switch does out of the box (and at that point costs the same as a high-end graphics card. An RTX 3070 is $499USD at MSRP). Like just... damn... damn that is expensive. And that is before we expand the borderline useless built-in storage of the cheapest Steam Deck. I have no idea how people can defend the cost of this thing...

The Steam Deck is a nice piece of tech, I love the tech in the thing... but just like when the PS3 launched back in 2006 when your cost is bonkers you'll have a hard time attracting a mainstream audience.

@Itachi2099 I find people are more enchanted with what the Steam Deck on paper could be than what it is in reality. I've used one and it's fine in portable mode. I don't see much of a difference between it and the Switch playing the same games because when you're playing on small screens it's harder to notice higher res textures and shadows. So, I don't think you're getting that much of an upgrade there. But, if you're looking for a difference you will notice it.

For the "docked" experience it is not a replacement for a PS5/XSX, a gaming PC or even a gaming laptop. The Steam Deck is a nice piece of tech I was pleasantly surprised by it. But, the biggest benefit of the system is to play what the Switch never got. Which is great! But, it is not this uber gaming system in the palm of your hands that Steam Deck warriors claim it is.

@NateDZD you want Nintendo Switch games on your Steamdeck because your backpack is too small to fit a Switch, a Steamdeck, a laptop, a tablet, a battery pack and an e-reader.

I mean thanks for @ing me with this but I've got nothing I can add to this. You do you.

I just hope I'm never behind you in the airport security queue.

@nocdaes As someone who has travelled it is not that hard to fit a Switch, laptop and battery pack and easily remove it from my backpack while travelling. A lot of backpacks (especially good quality backpacks like Swissgear) are designed to store those kinds of products efficiently and easily... so I think he needs to upgrade his backpack not his hardware

As for the line of "100s of games," the average Steam Deck does not do that out of the box (unless it is 100s of sub 1GB games) and even then it is not going to be 100s of AAA games unless you shove a terabyte MicroSD in there... in that case... how do you have the money for a $150 card and why would you waste that on a Steam Deck

We owe Nintendo nothing, as they owe us noting. People are going to whine ad infinitum, it's not going to change a bloody thing. Emulation will not go away anytime soon.

@mikegamer Agree the issue will never go away, but I do not accept that Valve are OK to include it in a promotional video for their hardware. The arguments in support of Valve are rightly being shot down - whining or not!

@Nikhogan having a switch emulator on the steam deck isn't illegal

@Wexter Yes, well i did wonder if a new bag could be an option!

My reference to the 100s upon 100s of games was aimed at a user's Steam library - not specifically the Steamdeck. They are technically one and the same though since you have access to your full Steam library on the Steamdeck - but indeed you are unlikely to be able to download everything, and would have to pick and choose.

(Especially true if you have filled your storage with knock-off Switch games !)

@Wexter actually it does lol I can tell you don't actually have a steam deck. It plays GameCube games quite well out of the box too. Emudeck is amazing.

Y'all simp wayyy to hard for a billion dollar company, emulation on the deck is amazing. Links awakening runs perfectly on the deck 😄

@Chunkboi79 Considering the average GCN iSO is 1.5GB no you're Steam Deck does not store 100s of games on it. You have a Steam Library that has 100s of games (maybe as that's a lot of games and you probably don't have the time to play them all), but the low-tier Steam Deck itself out of the box cannot store 100s of games. Which was my point

@Wexter okay I was gonna say I easily have 1000+ games in roms alone, and like 40 newer steam games

@Araquanid I don’t know what country you live in, but creating a backup of data is not illegal in the US. Copyright specifically deals with distributing said backups. You make a ROM for backup purposes: no crime. You upload it to a file sharing site: now you have committed copyright infringement.

@Wexter That seems disingenuous to the conversation, considering a Deck has a memory card slot.

“Not much of an upgrade.”

Can you play Elden Ring or Horizon on a Switch, then?

@Itachi2099 Thank you for the correction, that's my mistake.

Steam Deck can run Spider-man at 30-40 FPS in portable mode and desktop mode.

Switch, by comparison, cannot run Spider-man at all.

Thank you for allowing me to repeat this point.

@nocdaes lolwut?

Valve already re-uploaded the video and removed the 1 second glimpse of Vuzu. They confirmed it wasn't even intentional.

You don't need to keep talking about something that was resolved like 16 hours ago, but continue if you want.

@Wexter "the low-tier Steam Deck itself out of the box cannot store 100s of games"

The base model Steam Deck has 64GB of internal memory, same as the top tier Switch OLED model. Likewise, they both have SD card slots for additional storage.

While we're on the subject, I've never been able to store/backup Switch games like I can with Steam. Is that something that's possible that I just wasn't aware of?

With Steam Deck, I just copy and paste the files to make room for other games and then drag and drop right back into the games directory if I ever wanted to re-install.

I have two external 2TB hard drives, for a total of 4TB of space to store all the games I will probably ever own.

I don't remember that being possible with Switch, but I could be wrong.

Just a shame the deck is a terrible console. It's like a trial version of what they were hoping for. As someone who's sent back 3 of them for replacements (battery issues, stick drift, screen going blank and more) I finally learned my lesson by getting a refund. If you want to play Switch games, buy a Switch. The only people that emulate are poor people.

@SonOfDracula the Switch can run carts the Steam Deck is pure digital. So, that was my point is the added costs of the Steam Deck add up fast before you even get started. I'm not dissing the hardware just Valve's business practice and pricing model.

@Chunkboi79 no issues. I can see where the confusion happens. For the record I have a Steam Deck, but I'm not quite in love with it as others are. Kinda regret spending the money now that the RTX 4000 series is releasing soon.

@Astral-Grain “ The base model Steam Deck has 64GB of internal memory, same as the top tier Switch OLED model.”

Difference is something like Doom Eternal is 18gb on Switch, but on Steam Deck? You have to download all 80gb PC version

Also, you can easily store/backup Switch games on SD cards in console settings

@Astral-Grain it's super easy to backup Switch games... Kinda a disingenuous comment there as swapping games to MicroSDs is a breeze and easy to store in a carrying case. But, you don't even have to backup Switch games because of physical media.

@Wexter Sounds like you have that part backwards. It costs more to manufacture carts than distribute digital assets. As for the customer, they have to buy what, a single micro SD card? So? You have to do the exact same on the Switch if you hope to make use of it, unless you're a die-hard physical collector. Then you have to pay elevated costs for games, because lord knows Nintendo rarely, if ever, puts their games on sale. Meanwhile, I got Sekiro for $12 on the recent Steam sale. SEKIRO. $12. You'll rarely see games of that caliber on the Switch, first off, and if a game like that is on that console, good luck waiting for a sale.

@BloodNinja Switch eShop sales happen all the time mate and retailers like EB, Amazon and Bestbuy always have stuff on discounts. My issue with the Steam Deck is an issue with that you have to spend more money to get the lowest-tiered version to play anything of note out of the box. Making the 64GB internal storage boarder line worthless (most AAA games are at least 50GB-80GB nowadays on PC). And even if you upgraded to a decent $30 SD card it will hold maybe a handful of AAA games due to a lack of optimization for small storage space. Unlike the Switch which even with a 256GB MicroSD you can store a lot more compared to the same card on a Steam Deck.

My issues have not been with the Steam Deck more Valve hiding hidden costs all over the place that are dumped right on the consumer. They have to spend $500+ to even get a comparable experience to a Switch out of the box. Hence my issue is with pricing not the system.

@Wexter What's the point in arguing storage when on both systems, you can solve it with an SD card? Are the Switch die-hards really that hard pressed for confirming their brand loyalty?

@BloodNinja dude I'm a PC gamer more than a Nintendo gamer. My issue is with people saying the Steam Deck is the next coming of the PS2 and don't actually discuss the downsides to goad over Switch owners. Which is fine, but pricing of the Steam Deck is atrocious. A $89 dollar dock sold separate from the unit? How do you defend that when the main selling point of the hardware is it's a Steam powered Switch-like? you're spending on average 200+ more dollars to get a similar experience the Switch does at $299 at the base model. I can ask the same question in reverse? You seem incapable to actually discuss the downsides to owning a Steam Deck.

@BloodNinja Where do you “switch games never go on sale” people always come from? Witcher 3 and Doom Eternal were 20$ on a recent eshop sale, all Resident Evil games were 8-10$, Metro 2033 and Last Light were 2$ and 4$, Bioshock collection was 10$ etc etc etc

Maybe try opening up Eshop at least once in a while?

@Wexter I don't see too many downsides to owning a Steam Deck, other than potential hardware failure. The price is extremely fair for what you get. All models can play my entire Steam/PC library and it costs half of what I paid for my gaming laptop of similar specs 4 years ago. I see a lot of downsides to owning a Switch. In particular, I don't like supporting companies with practices that recent-Nintendo has been engaging in, so I noped out. I also don't like the compromises I was constantly having to make with many Switch ports, such as long load times, texture pop-in, performance issues, high pricing for old ports, etc. Not a fan!

@Itachi2099 Switch tax, and all that.

@BloodNinja you will be getting those same issues with the Steam Deck soon... And Valve is not as consumer friendly as you think they are. But, that's not a me problem... So... Whatever mate.

@Wexter I honestly don't think you read the reply. Stop trying to bait pointless arguments.

@BloodNinja mate not baiting. But, you do you

@BloodNinja
“I don't see too many downsides to owning a Steam Deck”
“I see a lot of downsides to owning a Switch”

And that’s what we call in the business inherent bias…..or maybe you’re just somehow blind to every negative brought up against Steam Deck and would rather just brush it off and excuse it as “lmao Nintendo haters are mad at us SUPERIOR PC users”?

@nocdaes Emulation is perfectly legal. How one gets backups is another story. SCOTUS has deemed emulators legal under copyright laws. So, people need to calm down on social media lol.

@Itachi2099 That was a good attempt to turn a negative into a positive, but Switch ported games are always about 1/4 the size compared to the original version because the Switch version of a ported game must use the lowest resolution textures in order to even run.

This is painfully obvious in ports like Witcher 3 and The Outer Worlds. These games are technically impressive that they even run on Switch, but it's visually terrible when you compare to any other version.

So your argument is basically "Switch ports take less space because they look like muddy water"

Is that really an advantage?

@Wexter Ah, so when one asks a question or makes a statement and follow up by saying "I could be wrong" that is somehow a disingenuous comment.

I see.

@Astral-Grain dude not to disrespect, but just because you added the "could be wrong" at the end does not make it less disingenuous because you played up the feature for Steam Deck when Switch does it but better. It takes a minute to Google to double check before posting the comment.

But, I will say that I could had worded that softer. For that I do apologize.

@Wexter dude not to disrespect, but just because you don't actually read the comments you reply to, that doesn't mean you're not still being a troll.

I smell a nuclear console war

@Astral-Grain not trolling dude. Just pointing out that before you comment like you're an authority on something check first or you will get called out.

@Rika_Yoshitake With this logic, gaming PC sales are driven mostly by piracy. We're talking about Steam, a platform that's known for putting an end to widespread piracy of PC games due to how it pioneered it's format. It also has about double the amount of games as current generation Xbox, Nintendo, and PS console libraries combined, and that's not mentioning the access the Deck gives you to other huge non-Steam games/platforms, like Minecraft Java, Epic Games, and Blizzard. It's literally just a PC. Piracy on the Deck isn't easier or harder than on any other PC.
Besides, Yuzu can be used without piracy and totally within the law provided you obtain the files from a Switch where you've bought your games.

@Kals this is a Steam Deck take I can agree with! Not a huge fan of Valve inadvertently advertising emulation... Because of its strong connection to piracy. But, as far as games go if you're okay with needing to tweak games (especially older ones without built in controller support) then it's great for that!

@russell-marlow want to hear a joke? The history of valve hardware since you want to bring up the topic of jokes lol

The irony when you are claiming “projecting” when that is your opener as a reply lmao

@Astral-Grain But that doesn't change the fact that the Switch does allow you to get by with less storage space, something that doesn't apply to other devices. If you think the ports look like muddy water that's fine, but there are people out there who are willing to make that tradeoff

Hey Nintendo, if you want to stop people emulating your games on PC, the simplest thing to do is just put them there. Just saying.

@ArcticSin No Thanks!

@Itachi2099 Sony wised up and everyone else is doing it now. It's only a matter of time.

@SonOfDracula if US government didn't read between the lines then yeah.

But the way our government views the scenario is "you illegally copied X to play on your X device instead of buying a new port of the game for the device."

In other words, If I wanted to play my own earthbound rip on my homebrew Wii U but already own it on my super nintendo, I'd be liable because nintendo would argue "They lost money not buying the port on the eshop instead".

Like I said its a very grey area, you could argue it and maybe win off of fair use but reality is nintendo gets its way with the more expensive lawyers and they'll pull that card on you and win. They easily could pull the "well what if we were working on it!" card if they wanted to should you use the claim "port doesn't exist". Fair use is your only defense and it hasn't been working for anything lately (our government is just awful when it comes to copyright, they usually skip the fair use part in court cases regarding fair use vs. copyright.. you can DMCA remixes of your songs even if they're not for profit and still win.). There just isn't many to no examples of ROMs in court to prove yes or no so there's no definitive answer... its technically illegal by the books but its never been enforced to prove it yet. Reality is its hard to get caught and there's so much of it that it would be too herculean to go through all the cases.

Idk if I can link any sources to other news articles here but you'll see a lot of mixed answers when researching.

@Araquanid You're terribly misinformed, and I'll just leave it at that.

@Chunkboi79 but promoting a software that you need to pirate games to use is. valve is technically promoting piracy. mind you, im not against emulation, but i know for a fact nintendo will try to take this down is all

@contractcooker by showing an emulator app that you need to pirate games to use, valve is promoting piracy

@Nikhogan you can dump your own games. Emulation doesn't mean you're automatically pirating games. Nintendo can't do anything about this.

@Arawn93 I was talking about you making mention of "Valve fanboys" when you "Nintendrones" can be more guilty of the same thing and enabling a company to get away with stuff while another company wants to give more power to the consumer.

We all know how stingy Nintendo's legal team has been over the years and how they really like to make things difficult for fans creating fan games non-profit and Youtubers. Meanwhile, Valve has always embraced fans creating content and releasing it on their site or elsewhere like with some of the Half-Life fans games or the Black Mesa HL1 remake, but please do go on about "Valve fans".

Yes, Valve hardware. This is probably Valve's third attempt at hardware, which turned out too be pretty successful. Can't say their Steam Box console was a good idea, maybe their Steam controller either but some people still like it and it's become somewhat of a collector's item.

Keep in mind that for every Valve hardware "failure", Nintendo has their own Virtual Boy and Wii U that they try not to remind us of.

@Chunkboi79 hmmmmmm
okay

@SonOfDracula Ok lawyer. Leave it at that, try that in court too instead of backing up claims.

Don’t get the hate for the steam deck on here bizarre tbh - it’s absolutely amazing. Arguments are coming across pretty infantile.

You can like both the switch and the steam deck you know.

@ArcticSin Sony wised up? More like made a fatal mistake, thankfully Nintendo won’t ever repeat it.

This comment section reminds me of this image I saw posted here once...

@Nikhogan does the app itself cause piracy? can you download games directly from the app? Are there any legitimate uses for the app? It’s not as clear cut as you make out. You also need a browser and Usenet/BitTorrent client for piracy. Should valve ban those as well?

@Punisher67 yeah. The steam deck is amazing. But so is the switch. I think it’s safe to say we may not have seen the steam deck without the switch’s success. I like them both. If I could choose only one it would be the switch but I don’t have to choose! Can’t wait to see what valve does next. The deck is a very compelling first attempt at the formfactor.

@Itachi2099 I don't see how expanding their market and letting people that don't want to buy their console to play their games is a fatal mistake. I never would have played Spider-Man, Horizon Zero Dawn or God of War if it wasn't for their PC ports. If Nintendo doesn't do the same well I guess they don't want my money anymore because I'm done with their hardware.

Now this is quite the comment section ...But as soon as you put the word emulator in a title on here, I guess that was inevitable.

@Vil It's a few things and I think this outcome is expected. On one level you have Steam Deck fans ignoring legitimate criticism of the Deck (pricing, hidden costs with the base model, Valve promoting a part of gaming culture highly associated with piracy, Steam Deck having the downsides of a laptop without the benefits, needing to tweak graphical settings if the game is not set up to play on a Steam Deck, the lack of optimization with games/file storage which exacerbates the borderline useless storage of the base model which will only get worse within the next few years, and Valve's rather unfortunate history of supporting their own hardware etc). Then you mix in Nintendo fans who ignore the issues the Switch currently has (lack of AAA 3rd party support for key franchises like CoD, Battlefield, Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed, the Switch's aging hardware and Nintendo's sometimes let's say lack of embarrassing modern gaming culture etc) and that is a recipe for disaster. Let alone the emulation question and people's general misinformed stance on the subject.

I can only see this getting worse when the Switch 2 drops in a year or two... but, we'll see. Valve might price themselves out of the competition if they need to do a Steam Deck refresh, or maybe the Switch 2 might Wii U and flounder. Right now I don't see either fanbase seeing eye-to-eye on this.

Steam Deck is better than a Nintendo switch by tenfold. Doug Bowser is going to ruin the company and the Nintendo Switch! Lmfaoooooo 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

@ArcticSin i’m sure Nintendo is devastated they won’t receive your money anymore! Don’t let the door hit ya on the way out, by-bye!

@Kals The fact that you said Steam put a end to wide spread piracy on PC is downright hilarious.

I hope you're not naïve enough to actually believe that.