Nintendo’s Switch has been a phenomenon. The latest console/portable device by the Japanese game maker has been refreshing and in some way revolutionary in terms of its effects on the gaming industry with total sales now surpassing the 141 million mark as of March 2024.
Handheld gaming and the idea of gaming on the move have reinvigorated the portable gaming market. With new and established player entering it to try their luck at handheld gaming. These days there is no shortage of powerful, portable handheld gaming devices that come with a variety of specs and features, the challenge is separating the good from the great as they all come with a solid value proposition. The question is, can they stack up against Nintendo’s offering?
The Handheld Gaming Leader: The Steam Deck
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If there was one company (well, besides Microsoft and Sony) that was going to take on Nintendo in the handheld gaming market by introducing a competitive and potentially cutting-edge product, that company would be Valve. The acclaimed game developer known for renowned games like Half-Life 2 and Portal stepped into the portable gaming market with a top-notch device made with the latest AMD Zen 2 and RDN 2 graphics with an in-house Linux-based operating system: SteamOS.
The Steam Deck’s gaming ambition was simple: make PC-level games accessible on a handheld device, whilst providing decent frame rates and solid resolutions, backed up by a solid, and ever-growing library of games. And in this regard, the Steam Deck was a success. With a vast library of games including top titles like The Witcher 3, the handheld gaming device went on to win the award for the best gaming innovation for 2022.
The Next Step in Handheld Gaming – The Mobile Gaming PC
Taking things to the next level or at least a different one is Lenovo’s entry into the handheld gaming market with its Lenovo Legion Go. A handheld that is similar in size and structure to the Steam Deck but seeks to go one up in the specs department. The 8.8-inch screen is larger than Steam Deck’s 7-inch screen and comes with a higher refresh rate at 144hz vs the Vale machine’s 60hz.
The Lenovo Legion Go is clearly the more powerful machine and can play games at a higher frame rate than the Steam Deck. And given the fact that it runs a Windows operating system, the player basically has a mobile PC on his/her hands. This makes a great many other computing-related tasks more straightforward. And all in all is arguably the better device. However, there is something about the Steam Deck, from its first entry into the market, its gaming pedigree, the Steam library, and its dedicated OS, that makes it that much more appealing.
Handheld Gaming – Where to from Here?
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There is no question that handheld gaming is here to stay. Given the history of handheld gaming from the time of the old Game Boy to the more advanced PSP, the journey to modern handheld games has been remarkable. With the tremendous success of the Nintendo Switch with its awesome library of games; whose screen specs were improved upon by the Nintendo Switch LED and now with talks of an upcoming Switch 2, the future for handheld gaming looks secure.
The question now is how far will games advance with the growing power of handheld devices. The current thinking is about making PC and console games playable on handheld devices. As the industry evolves will game developers bring a handheld-first mindset to game development? A question that is worth pondering.
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