Hacker News Reader

HNHacker News

Top New Best Ask Show Jobs

Comment by unpopularopp | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

unpopularopp·

>In combination with Steam Deck it's console killer

Are you saying that Proton + Linux seriously threatening, killing, the market of PS5/Xbox Series/Nintendo Switch?

View on HN

Steam Deck is kinda on some path there.

Steam Deck sold about 3 million units; Playstation 5 about 30 million, X-Box about 20 million, Nintendo Switch about 130 million. Steam has about 120 million active accounts.

I mean, it's successful I guess, but also not exactly taking over the world.

Well it's v1.0. Lot's of rough edges too! I see 3 million as a big number for an open/linux gaming console.

Well, the first Playstation sold about 100 million units; the NES about 60 million. Of course they had longer to sell those units, this is offset by the lower population, lower cost, and a smaller market (less Chinese people were able to afford a NES or even Playstation 1). Even the Dreamcast sold about 9 million units, which wasn't enough to keep Sega afloat. To get to numbers of the same magnitude we need to get to the Sega CD with about 2.2 million units sold, and that's widely considered to be a huge failure.

I see no reason to buy any other console. Just the game availability and pricing makes it a no brainer for me. How long is it going to take the wider public to realize, is another story.

The Steam Deck is regarded as a competitor to the Nintendo Switch yeah?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com