The Handheld Gaming Revolution: Has it Gone Too Far?

The Steam Deck’s release in 2022 sparked a handheld PC gaming revolution, with every company wanting a slice of the pie. But has the market become oversaturated? We spoke to Steve from GamersNexus to get his take on the current state of handheld gaming.

The handheld gaming market is flooded with options.

According to Steve, the sheer number of handheld gaming devices available is overwhelming for consumers. While innovation and unique features abound, the complexity is too much for most users, who will likely default to the Steam Deck.

“The market is too complicated for regular consumers, and they will generally default to the Steam Deck anyway.”

But is this trend a passing fad, or will it endure? The Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck have proven that there’s demand for gaming devices of this size, particularly outside of the US, where smaller homes and mass transit make handheld gaming more appealing.

The Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck have shown that there’s demand for gaming devices of this size.

Valve seems to be in an unassailable position, but Asus is a close contender with its ROG Ally X, which has made significant design changes even before upgrading the core Ryzen chip inside. Intel is also in the mix with its MSI Claw, although it’s struggling to keep up with AMD’s APU designs.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips are popular in laptops, but they haven’t yet entered the handheld market. Could they be a dark horse in this space?

The handheld gaming market is crowded, but there’s still room for innovation.

The handheld gaming market may be crowded, but there’s still room for innovation and growth. As the market continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see which companies thrive and which ones fall behind.