This is probably very old news but I only recently read an announcement about Sony wanting to make a portable PlayStation type thing to rival the Switch. Details were light but what I understood said that it would stream games FROM the PlayStation.

Erm, what?

I think the Steam handheld thing works the same way. The pictures I have seen are configured like the Switch with the screen and the controllers either side for the hands to hold. But just a glorified monitor and controller is NOT the same as the Switch.

Now either I am misunderstanding in which case these companies need better marketing OR they completely misunderstand what makes the Switch so great.

I had to go into hospital a couple of weeks ago. There was Wi-Fi but I could not get it to work. I was just stuck in this endless loop of putting in the details and then getting asked to do it again. Obviously there isn’t any Wi-Fi in cars etc. The Switch is awesome because it doesn’t need the internet. It runs on its own. I put the game in/have it onboard or on an SD card and I am off to the races. It was a great distraction in the endless hours sitting in waiting rooms until I got taken to surgery.

We had a power cut last night. No internet. No TV. No PlayStation. But the Switch had full battery. I could have played that for hours if I had wanted. Internet isn’t always available and definitely isn’t always strong/fast enough. I had a SteamLink back in the day and that was too slow within the same house. I just can’t see how “stream your game over the internet” is actually viable to begin with. But even if I suspend disbelief and say ok, it still misses the brilliance of the portability of the Switch that isn’t dependant on that.