why do i need this? i already have a steam deck and more games than i will ever reasonably finish

nobody's games are so good as to justify locked-down hardware anymore, imo. this isn't the post-video game crash era anymore, there are so many good games out there... and even more shovelware, but some of that gets the nintendo seal of quality(tm) too.

there isn't the need for specific hardware anymore either, it has all converged onto either pc or tablet/phone hardware because that's good enough now.

so. it seems to me like the only thing keeping game consoles relevant now is marketing hype and exclusivity deals. y'know, peak capitalism shit. why are we encouraging this?

@kit You don't need it, of course. But consoles do have an advantage for developers in that they can count on a specific set of hardware and capabilities, which means you get some creative constraints but also a minimum bar you can expect. (Of course this is mostly only relevant for exclusives, but that's a not-awful reason for things to be exclusive.)

@kit The other major-ish thing consoles get you is consistent(ish) input devices. The Wiimote was genuinely new and neat, even though it wasn't always used to the fullest. The Switch joycons are similarly a decent input device if you want to build neat gameplay around them. Sure, you can require them on a PC game, but good luck selling that on Steam or GOG. I think there's still room for fun / generational hardware, anyway. (But with that said, I don't know that much of that applies to the Switch 2 over the Switch, but they apply to both over "but I could play games on my computer!".)