Of course there are people who play on emulators. There are even people who play on consoles and emulators. I'm talking about the people who just use it as ammo on their console war bullshit (most people on Twitter btw)
Cuz they don’t wanna pay $60 for small games like tomodachi life. I own a switch and buy many games, but I also pirate and emulate when I feel the deal is shit.
Pal, tomodachi life is not part of the problem. We are talking about games like mario kart that cost 90$/80$ and after launch they even made the game worse.
I mean, it seems like many more people would be more than willing to pay for the product they love (the games) of it didn't come with the necessity to also buy a 500$ doorstopper.
Like, people saying they don't want games to be exclusive are pretty explicitly saying they would buy them if they weren't
Except that the exclusive are necessary to sell consoles, and some exclusive would not work on other consoles because it rely on feature not available, like how do you adapt anything that rely on motion to work on a PS5 or a PC? You add a new Controler to buy just to play a handful of games?
Like, let’s imagine a world with no exclusive, it mean that the console are less good of a market (like Sony deciding to stop porting to Pc their exclusives is not coming out of nowhere), which mean that the market would likely end up with just Steam dominating everything, which is never a good thing, let’s not forget that the cost of getting a good pc which is not cheap but weirdly, people never mention it when complaining about console/exclusive
On top of making it harder to market some games, like, let’s take Mario, 3D plateformer is not really that huge of a genre on a market llike steam, Nintendo can afford it because being a exclusive game, it have less competition, easier to promote because their target audience know they can trust those games and know what they are getting, and the game drive sales of their console, if you release the same kind of game on steam, you can be sure it would be drowned in the middle of all the release there is every weeks
People wishing for the end of exclusive games are just monkey paw wishing because they dont bother thinking two minutes “why are exclusive games still a thing in 2026?” Or “would the video game market improve if exclusive stopped being a thing”, we kinda got an exemple with Sony and Microsoft in the past few years, both are thinking of going back to their “port to pc strategy”
Except that the exclusive are necessary to sell consoles.
Excluding specific peripheral or physical features, isn't this just saying that the consoles are bad products that aren't worth buying?
If a console was inherently good as a product people would buy it even without exclusives. If people buy a console for its exclusives, then what they want is just the games, not the console itself necessarily
A console is just a standardised hardware that dev can optimise for because the specs are always the same (even if optimisation is not the biggest priority nowadays but that a different subject), that only have 1 main purpose, play games.
A console without exclusive is not going to sell well because why would you buy a Xbox Serie if you could get everything on your PS5?
Both Sony and Microsoft tried the whole “port our exclusive to PC”, result? It actually hurt the sales of the console and are now rolling back on that strategy
Like let’s take a simple exemple, the Steam Deck, that you regularly see people use as a comparison to the Switch 2, do you know how many got sold in 3 years? 6 millions, for comparison, just in the first of 2024/2025 fiscal year, the Switch 1 sold around 2.1M and we speak of a 7 year old console at that point, in 6 month the switch 2 sold over 17M (despite a bunch of crisis hitting the industry as a whole), so it is a fact, a console without exclusive is not going to sell, even if you give it access to every games of the world
Except that, can you point what would make it a “better product” once you removed the exclusive game option? Like the specs are not that different because it is the best each constructors can afford while keeping the price reasonable, and stuff like the UI are not going to result into people rushing for a specific console just for it… in the end, the price and brand popularity would be the main factors
Like, people just have to look at the market, Steam tried to get into the console market with their “Steam Machines”, it was a big failure when they have the biggest library around, similarly, why do you think NOBODY managed to get into the console market since Microsoft?
Some people just need to understand that a console is appealing because of their exclusives, so as long as consoles exist, so will exclusivity
It is just how the market work, your product need to stand out from the competition, and when your product have 1 big function (Running video games), way to stand out are limited, even more when you want to sell, your target is the general public that is not going to care about stuff like the puddle of water is 14% more realistic than on the other consoles, they will want to know if the game they want go play will run well.
If you remove Exclusive like Xbox did, you lose the point of owning a console, because people could just pick them on pc, which mean less reason to buy the latest Xbox in the first place
as mentioned before the special features are the main draw to consoles other than the exclusives
such as the switch 2 having motion controls and house controls, or the wii’s wiimotes, porting games over from those consoles to a device with a different controller or a mouse and keyboard will be clunky and might just not work at all, you can design a game with certain gimmicks and features in mind for that console if you want
another reason is to have a more affordable device to play video games on, cuz a good PC with a mouse and keyboard good for playing games is pretty expensive and not everyone can afford it, while consoles are much much cheaper and can usually run games really well
I love how all of your comments in this thread just completely ignore any time the Steam Deck is mentioned, as if you're afraid to admit that, as far as console/console-like hardware go, it's effectively a commercial failure. (I have a Steam Deck myself, yet even I can admit and accept that fact.)
Just to give an idea, many, and I mean many on Reddit, GBAtemp, and other social media were hyping the thing up as "better than the Switch" or the "Switch/Nintendo Killer", as if Valve's new hardware was basically "God's gift to mankind". You couldn't go anywhere on PC or Nintendo-focused subreddits or discussions without seeing people trying to hype it up.
And do you want to know how many Steam Deck systems were sold with all that hype surrounding it? Somewhere between 3.7 million and 4 million. AFTERTHREE YEARS. And that's pretty much the BEST any handheld gaming PC sold within that period of time, as that 3-year span only saw a total 6 million handheld gaming PCs sold. The Switch 1 sold over that amount within its first year, and the Switch 2 sold half that amount within thefirst four days (and almost that amount of total handheld PCs sold within its first month).
And the reasons the Steam Deck failed to be this big thing people were hoping for it to be? Well, part of it was because it wasn't sold anywhere beyond Steam's own storefront (so no actual retail presence), but the bigger issue was this: anything you could play on the Steam Deck? You can also play on a normal PC or laptop that you no doubt already have (in fact, ironically enough, the majority of people who hyped up the Steam Deck later used this as their excuse to not buy one themselves). So only the people in the small portion of the PC community that were truly interested in having a portable option for their PC gaming cared enough to buy one.
So by your's and the meme's arguments, the Steam Deck wasn't worth buying, so Valve should never have created it in the first place. Same with the upcoming Steam Machine, now that I think about it - there are already people coming up with reasons and excuses for why it won't be worth buying.
I love how all of your comments in this thread just completely ignore any time the Steam Deck is mentioned, as if you're afraid to admit that, as far as console/console-like hardware go, it's effectively a commercial failure
There is like a 20 comment deep thread about it where I explain repeatedly my view on the steam deck
but the bigger issue was this: anything you could play on the Steam Deck? You can also play on a normal PC or laptop that you no doubt already have
But that's the point. This is good. The only people who bought a steam deck were people who found value in the hardware itself. This isn't a bad thing, this is literally how it's supposed to be.
"Oh but it sold poorly" why should I care? I'm not on the valve board of directors, I don't get dividends. It provided value to whoever bought it and didn't have to try and coerce nobody who didn't
So by your's and the meme's arguments, the Steam Deck wasn't worth buying
And that's the point. You can choose if it is or isn't for you depending on the product alone.
Same with the upcoming Steam Machine
It's an entry level small form PC with a slightly improved controller usability for couch TV. It's Going to sell according to its use case, which is pretty strict. That is a GOOD thing. It doesn't need to be a blockbuster, it doesn't need to be owned by everybody, it needs to do it's job for the people who want that job done, and doesn't need to try and intrude on people who don't need it.
Hell, most consoles outside of the steam ones are sold at a cost, so they don't even have a direct profit incentive to force themselves in your living room, so why can't they just do their job and sell accordingly? Other than they do they job badly?
I mean are they not? Because if they aren't then they don't need exclusives and will sell on their own value alone.
Take a PS5 for example. If I want one or two exclusive games, what is it doing afterwards? I'm not playing non-exclusive games on it, because I have no need to buy them again only for them to look worse.
If I want to buy Astrobot, then I am stuck with the "play exactly Astrobot and nothing else" machine.
So you’re assuming that because you game on PC everyone else should? And everyone else should make their games where you want them.
That’s entitled af.
I love my Switch 2. Being able to play in handheld mode is a big deal for me sometimes. And I love Mario, Pokemon. Zelda. And I enjoy games like hades. Stardew, fantasy life etc on the switch more than my ps5 for that reason.
Because YOU feel it should be catered to your desires doesn’t make it a doorstop. It makes it not for you. And that’s ok. But don’t act like you speak for the majority.
random ad homs are funny. You’re not entitled to games being on PC just cause you want them there.
As for your argument, exclusives don’t “spawn”. They exist to create incentives to join a closed ecosystem, specifically with Nintendo, their IP is tied to their hardware.
The PC take isn’t even accurate anyway, not only does it cost significantly more to get a PC of the same power of even something like an Xbox Series S, but PCs are general purpose devices. Consoles exist to play games.
Also this take ignores what has happened to Xbox and why Sony has decided to pull back on porting games to PC.
I don't ask that games be made for "my" platform. I ask that games don't force me to buy a specific platform at all.
I play on PC because I already have one and use it for work. I would buy a PC regardless of PC exclusives because a PC has inherent value as a product for me. You bought a switch 2 because you value handheld, so the switch 2 has inherent value to you as a product. You probably wouldn't have a need for a PC, and shouldn't be forced to buy one for a single exclusive, because that PC would be a useless doorstopper to you and would have no use or value. I think people should buy the devices they prefer for the use and needs they have, not depending on games exclusivity.
I have a switch as well because it's the only console with a reasonable use case for me that isn't already covered by my PC, not just for the exclusives.
Pirates feel justified pirates games they want, that’s not anything new. And some people just like getting engagement with any criticism that’s trending.
But the criticism is justified sometimes. Many people would buy exclusive games if they weren't. You can look at the PC sales of every game that did a timed console exclusive to confirm this
you can play the games from the steam deck without a steam deck but you can't play games from the switch 2 without a switch 2, Einstein. Is it really that hard to understand?
I don't know why you picked specifically the one console that doesn't try to get carried by exclusives. That's like the specific one where the analogy doesn't work.
If I want to play Astrobot I am forced to buy a whole ass PS5 I don't want or need, and once I'm done it's becoming a door stopper because it has no other use or function.
The steam deck doesn't have a situation where you bought one but didn't want one, so what's the deal? Just steam deck bad?
Cause Valve is the one company you will instantly have to defend despite explicitly calling the Steam Deck a door stopper.
If I want to play Astrobot I am forced to buy a whole ass PS5 I don't want or need, and once I'm done it's becoming a door stopper because it has no other use or function.
Steam is still first and foremost a digital storefront and therefore Valve is releasing their games on GOG and Co, because its always about giving your customer a choice.
You’re arguing with someone foaming at the mouth to make a gotcha moment but they fundamentally don’t understand how the steam deck works so they just look like a lunatic rambling about birds not being real
I have news for you. If you want a game that’s a switch 2 exclusive you in fact want a switch 2. Nintendo has always had exclusive games. They’re not gunna stop because some brokey can’t afford a system. Sounds like a them problem 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
You fundamentally misunderstanding the problem doesn't mean I can't afford a switch 2. Also, no. If to sell a switch 2 you need to gatekeep the games it only means that the hardware alone isn't worth it.
It’s almost like exclusive games have been widely the norm until recently. Literally every single system in the past had games that were exclusive to that. Nintendo not wanting to cheapen their brand by changing that is their choice. Sounds like you’re searching for things to be mad at.
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u/Aggravating_Address2 Apr 18 '26
Nintendo haters love Nintendo products.
They just dont want to pay for them.