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There exists a world where the Switch is the Steam Machine. It would have been very well possible if Nvidia had chosen Steam instead of Nintendo as distributor

by _pmf_ 9y ago

There exists a world where the Switch is the Steam Machine. It would have been very well possible if Nvidia had chosen Steam instead of Nintendo as distributor for its Shield. We'd have an open handheld platform for indie games.

eloisant 9y ago
It's not "Nvidia choosing Nintendo as a distributor", it's "Nintendo choosing Nvidia as a component provider". Let's be realistic, the success of the Switch is more because of Nintendo software (Zelda, but also the promise of other Nintendo IPs coming) rather than the hardware. The success of indies on the Switch is more a byproduct of the Switch success that the other way around. Nvidia Shield existing before Nintendo Switch, it did have a focus on gaming but it didn't cought anyone's attention. I don't see a partnership with Steam changing much about that.
- sp332 9y ago
  Nvidia already had two generations of Shield products, and the third generation was hotly anticipated. After a delay, it was revealed that the Switch was going to be the third "Shield" generation. Nvidia was always going to make another tablet.
  - eloisant 9y ago
    Sure, but I don't think that third tablet would have had any more success than the previous ones if it wasn't a Nintendo console.
swebs 9y ago
>We'd have an open handheld platform for indie games. They already had a standalone Shield years before the Switch. Nobody wanted to support it since games had to be reworked for ARM and the Android framework. Same with the Ouya. It's not a particularly difficult obstacle, but there were so few users that it wasn't worth it. Breath of the Wild alone was enough to sell millions of units. There are now over 15 million Switches out in consumers's hands.
opencl 9y ago
But there are already x86 handhelds that can run Steam games just fine without trying to get all the developers on board porting to ARM. Just buy a GPD Win, or a SMACH Z if that thing ever actually goes into production.
whywhywhywhy 9y ago
>We'd have an open handheld platform for indie games. Nintendo is the last company in the world that would be interested in this. They're not in the hardware business to sell other peoples software, they're in it to build a platform for their own software. Nintendo platforms could literally ship with zero third party support and people would still buy them. Heck most casual gamers I know who bought Wii and Switch don't even own third party games at all, just Nintendo.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 9y ago
  Yep. People have been decrying the end of Nintendo since the Playstation and it hasn't come to pass because Nintendo is actually really freaking good at making games people want to play. They make the hardware to their standards, with a target price they choose, and they make their games to the hardware. It can't push as many triangles as a PS4? Nobody cares, because you can't play BotW on a PS4.
- _pmf_ 9y ago
  > Nintendo is the last company in the world that would be interested in this. My point was that Steam should have been interested in it.

by _pmf_ 9y ago

eloisant 9y ago

It's not "Nvidia choosing Nintendo as a distributor", it's "Nintendo choosing Nvidia as a component provider". Let's be realistic, the success of the Switch is more because of Nintendo software (Zelda, but also the promise of other Nintendo IPs coming) rather than the hardware. The success of indies on the Switch is more a byproduct of the Switch success that the other way around. Nvidia Shield existing before Nintendo Switch, it did have a focus on gaming but it didn't cought anyone's attention. I don't see a partnership with Steam changing much about that.

sp332 9y ago
Nvidia already had two generations of Shield products, and the third generation was hotly anticipated. After a delay, it was revealed that the Switch was going to be the third "Shield" generation. Nvidia was always going to make another tablet.
- eloisant 9y ago
  Sure, but I don't think that third tablet would have had any more success than the previous ones if it wasn't a Nintendo console.

swebs 9y ago

>We'd have an open handheld platform for indie games. They already had a standalone Shield years before the Switch. Nobody wanted to support it since games had to be reworked for ARM and the Android framework. Same with the Ouya. It's not a particularly difficult obstacle, but there were so few users that it wasn't worth it. Breath of the Wild alone was enough to sell millions of units. There are now over 15 million Switches out in consumers's hands.

opencl 9y ago

But there are already x86 handhelds that can run Steam games just fine without trying to get all the developers on board porting to ARM. Just buy a GPD Win, or a SMACH Z if that thing ever actually goes into production.

whywhywhywhy 9y ago

>We'd have an open handheld platform for indie games. Nintendo is the last company in the world that would be interested in this. They're not in the hardware business to sell other peoples software, they're in it to build a platform for their own software. Nintendo platforms could literally ship with zero third party support and people would still buy them. Heck most casual gamers I know who bought Wii and Switch don't even own third party games at all, just Nintendo.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 9y ago
Yep. People have been decrying the end of Nintendo since the Playstation and it hasn't come to pass because Nintendo is actually really freaking good at making games people want to play. They make the hardware to their standards, with a target price they choose, and they make their games to the hardware. It can't push as many triangles as a PS4? Nobody cares, because you can't play BotW on a PS4.
_pmf_ 9y ago
> Nintendo is the last company in the world that would be interested in this. My point was that Steam should have been interested in it.