Steam Deck game library now 29% larger than that of Nintendo Switch

And also, whenever the next one comes along that library will still be there

Every other console you have the concept of "backwards compatibility" as a feature rather than an expectation.

To be fair that's because software on consoles is designed for specific hardware. With newer hardware the old games won't just work, because they were complex for very specific hardware. So for BC you end up with emulation which requires a lot more processing power than the original hardware, and is not perfect.
Or using the old hardware like the PlayStation 3 BC for instance, they literally had the PS2 hardware in the PS3 to handle BC. And as time went on they removed that hardware to save costs and BC went with it.
PC gaming however, and by extension portables like the Steam Deck however are running software developed more generically for wider ranges of architecture to begin with. It means less hardware optimization, but it generally means compatibility out of the box as hardware improves since it wasn't designed with extremely specific hardware anyway.
- This is less true since the PS4/XB1 era, since it's just pretty standard x86 hardware, much like a PC. Although it may still apply to the Switch if they go in a different direction for the Switch 2.
- Or using the old hardware like the PlayStation 3 BC for instance, they literally had the PS2 hardware in the PS3 to handle BC.
  And the PS2 likewise literally had PS1 hardware to handle BC.

I'm surprised the difference isn't much higher, but I guess there's a ton of shovelware on the Switch.

It is much higher. Those are just the officially approved numbers. You can get a lot more games than that working though. Most will probably run out of the box anyway, or with just slight tinkering, assuming the performance of the Deck suffices of course. You may have to create custom control mappings though.
- Slight tinkering and slight annoyances. Like some text is hard to read or unreadable, button/key prompts are wrong. Frame limiting being wonky, sound glitches. But all in all still amazing to be able to play your stuff on the go.
- Yeah, a few examples from my own Deck include Rymdkapsel (works perfectly, not verified or marked as Chromebook Ready), Surviving Mars (playable, but not rated) and Turmoil (explicitly unsupported, but works fine).
respectfully, how have you not seen the infinite rivers of shovelware on steam since they stopped vetting the store ~10 years ago?
- I'd be surprised if many of those are verified for steam deck?
- That seems to be the point being made by the person you replied to; the difference should be higher (in favor of the Steamdeck) because of the vast quantity available on Steam. The shovelware is precisely why it should be higher. I think they're expressing surprise that the Switch even comes within the range it does, hence bringing up Switch shovelware as a possible source for this.
Steam is the same way
Shovelware? That's a new term for me..... Is that what they call the games made in Roblox and the like?
- Shovelware means games that are really low quality that some studios spam to try and get any money with little effort. Like garbage free to play games on mobile.
- You know those cheap Disney ripoff movies? Like Finding Nemo comes out and then anyone with a copy of Blender and a few hundred bucks to spend on distribution starts selling "The Little Lost Fish?" The video game equivalent of that is called shovelware.

And you can emulate the Switch on the Deck.

It's quite a lot more than that if you count all the titles that work but aren't verified, I imagine!

Also I can emulate a steamdeck on my desktop without being sued!

Why?
- Because the games that run on the Steam Deck are PC games, no emulation required. It's a joke.
- Because Nintendo are disgustingly anti-consumer.

My steam deck is also just stable as my switch now despite that not being the case when I first got mine.

Me too. When I first got it I would have hesitated to recommend it to the more luddite kind of people in my life but as it is now it barely needs a warning. Only thing really right now is making sure they understand the compatibility ratings.
- My 13-year-old niece loves mine, lol.

More like 129% considering I can play all the Switch games on a Deck.

As an owner of the Switch (with a huge backlog) and a dreaming owner of the Steam Deck, should I be happy or worried about the backlog?

Yes
- 🥲
Play the games that interest you, not that you have others waiting in the corner.
Do you have a steam account already? Do you have a gaming pc of any variety?
I love my deck, but I'm a nearly 20 year steam user. If you have a backlog and no steam account, why would you give yourself more of a backlog? (Although the emulation ability of the deck is fantastic, but again, why did a bigger back log hole?)
- I do have a Steam account and some games bought there (from years ago, I basically stopped because I didn't have a proper PC at that time... And that hasn't changed actually), and so many others from giveaways
  The "strongest" PC I have is a MacBook Pro 2014 with Windows 10/boot camp lol (it is almost the highest tier of that model) so yeah, that is basically not having anything (I remember it struggled to run Tomb Raider reboot, one of the games that I bought).
  If you have a backlog and no steam account, why would you give yourself more of a backlog? (Although the emulation ability of the deck is fantastic, but again, why did a bigger back log hole?)
  Basically this, I am lacking a proper device that can emulate GCN/Wii/PS2 games in a hybrid way such as the Switch.
  I have a Nvidia Shield TV Pro 2019 that can do some of that and a phone with Snap Dragon 865 which definitely can run those games, but sadly it doesn't have HDMI video out capabilities.
  Also yesterday I was messing around with my hacked Switch and saw that Dreamcast and N64 emulation on RetroArch are better than before (I didn't try it too much, but at least Conker Bad Fur Day and Crazy Taxi ran well, both in handheld and docked mode) and that is good and I want that for the consoles I cannot run properly yet.
  Also I am a bit disappointed that some PSP games have issues with the latest version available of PPSSPP for the Switch... Android version should be better...
Hey, at least your purchase is transferred!

Isn't that comparison asinine? I mean... Yeah, no shit. One is a handheld PC and the other isn't.

They're competitors on form factor. Actually, the one difference you mention is precisely why I'll probably be buying a SteamDeck instead of a Nintendo Switch. I can play Nintendo games on both after all.
- They are only competitors for people who are fairly ignorant. Steam deck comes with the ability to play switch games for free...
- I mean, I wouldn't buy into a decade old ecosystem either if I hadn't already. But by that logic, there is less games on my WiFi router than on the Xbox. Same form factor after all.
While the Steam Deck is technically a handheld PC, as a Linux enthusiast who's tried to use the desktop mode for laptoppy things... No it isn't.
It works in a pinch (well... Not for my job, but I also don't expect Valve to put lxd into SteamOS), but the comparison to the Switch (which I also own) is much better than comparing it to even a gaming laptop. In fact, if I were the type of person to emulate stuff (which, don't worry Nintendo, I totally am not), I would say my Steam Deck makes a better switch than my switch. If I'd emulated a Switch to play Mario Kart (which obviously I haven't) I'd say it was a better experience on my Steam Deck than on my switch.
- While the Steam Deck is technically a handheld PC, as a Linux enthusiast who's tried to use the desktop mode for laptoppy things... No it isn't.
  Desktop mode is literally just KDE, and you can install whatever OS you want on it anyway. In what way is it not a handheld PC?

That’s an embarrassingly small number of games for a PC… a PC should have access to far more games than that. I’m sure that’s just the “verified” games, but it’s pretty dumb to flaunt it like it’s something impressive.

Definitely just verified, the actual number is easily triple that.
Not to mention even tons of unsupported games work perfectly fine.
- And then there's emulation

Ugh! We don’t want larger games! We want more games!

Though both have a shit ton of shovelware garbage

As a Lenovo Go user that can access both worlds this is an interesting article to see where I stand in terms of overall access to games. But shouldn't a Steamdeck have more titles? As far as I know you can't you also side install Windows for games from other platforms?

This is just steam titles in the verified program. Protondb has 21k steam games that are reported working, and there's also non-steam games and emulation.
It's should also include the entire switch library.
- Concerning my usage of Emudeck it should also contain nearly every other console.

I don’t own anything Nintendo but I thought there would only be like 200 games.

If you exclude shovel-ware games it's likely around that amount, maybe a bit more. There's a lot of shovelware on the Switch (usually paid ports of free mobile games that would've been driven by ads normally).

I bet the amount of games that are what most would consider fully compatible is much higher than the amount of green checkmark games (valve just doesn't have time to check every single game out there).

What I would consider falling in that category is full Xinput controller support, no keybinding necessary, and Fully functional under proton. Yes you can get other games working but that's the optimal conditions for normies to play the games without fiddling.

Tried to get steredenn working on Steam deck in February. Failed miserably (controls didn't work).

Works on switch (within it's limitations of course).

Take that 😂

Btw steredenn is even Linux natively, that's what made me even more angry.

Edit: What's with the downvotes? I mean it's fine but - if I did something wrong or it works since date x, tell me!

Btw steredenn is even Linux natively, that's what made me even more angry.
That's basically the issue... especially older Linux ports run worse than the Windows version. I hope Valve will eventually consider setting Proton as the default for some games even when they are native, as their ports are usually abandoned and outdated.
- I tried everything the ui is able to to, proton and all, to no avail.
Try switching it to launch the windows version through Proton instead of the Linux version. Loads of games work better that way I’ve found, since a lot of the Linux versions don’t get the same level of support.
It also works with the major Switch emulators, although maybe you meant that.
- Haha, nice to know but no 😁.