Why not just… turn it off?

I use Steam Big Picture.

Specifically, I have a desktop PC, with an RTX 3090, hooked up to my TV.

Now I don’t recommend doing it this way anymore. It’s probably better to buy something like a Legion Go, hook it up to an eGPU, while you dock it to a TV.

But probably your bigger question is, “Why do I use Steam Big Picture?”

Because I specifically want to play PC games on my TV. Half my Steam library natively supports gamepad. And of those that don’t, I can easily adapt keyboard controls to a gamepad—if community-built options have not yet been made.

Truly, Steam is what Xbox should have been.

Well, Halo is an interesting story because that was supposed to be a killer game for the Mac.

I owned a Mac at the time and I was very salty that Microsoft bought Bungie, then made it the system seller for the Xbox.

But I loved Bungie so much that I was willing to make a deal with the devil just to play Halo.

Yeah, and what I’m saying is that the original appeal of Xbox was that it brought a PC gaming experience to the living room.

Stuff like hard drives and online multiplayer, that was a PC thing.

Games like Halo, MechWarrior, and Fable—they were more culturally a PC thing. Then Microsoft made it a console thing.

In my opinion, what killed Xbox as a console is that PC gamers no longer felt a need to “go console”. And the only customers left for Xbox were dyed-in-the-wool console gamers.

Which you can’t really build a business off of since even in the best case scenario, consoles sell only 150M units per generation.

The Xbox One should have been a Windows box in a console shell.

Crazy saying that Valve doesn’t operate in the same spot as Microsoft when Microsoft makes Windows.

Personally, I was never interested in Xbox as a PlayStation killer. Its entire appeal was that it was a consolized PC.

Then Valve went ahead and made all PCs into consoles.

The ROG Ally’s joy-cons are pretty much this except they lack a trackpad on the left controller.

Totally fair, but let’s put “long” in context—by ’90s gaming standards, a year was practically an eternity. That’s like five TikTok trends or three failed live-service shooters today.

And sure, there were console ports flying around faster than a cacodemon on nightmare mode, but let’s be honest: nobody was lining up to play Doom on the 32X, Jaguar, or 3DO. Most people didn’t even know what a 32X was, let alone own one.

The SNES version had about as much horsepower as a Roomba with a dying battery.

Meanwhile, on PC, Doom was running smooth, loud, and proud, exactly how John Romero intended—mouse, keyboard, and all. Even the execs chasing that gold rush had to admit: the real party was on DOS. If you wanted Doom at its best, you were booting it up on a beige box, not squinting at a blurry mess on a doomed add-on.

So yeah, everyone wanted Doom, but only the PC really delivered. The ports were like decaf coffee. Sure, you can drink it, but why would you?

Sure, a lot of these characters have gone multiplatform. But let’s be real, they’ll always have PC in their blood.

Doomguy was fragging demons on a beige tower long before he set foot on a console. Geralt was busy crashing Windows installs before he ever picked up a PlayStation trophy. Vault Boy practically has “runs best on PC” stamped on his forehead. Console gamers might have visiting rights now, but these mascots grew up in the wild west of PC gaming, and that’s where their roots (and all the weird mods) are.

And honestly, you can play Mario games on PC too—emulation is a thing—but everyone still thinks of Mario as a Nintendo icon. Same logic applies here. PC or bust.

You mean…Windows?

Don’t get me wrong—I love SteamOS and Bazzite as much as anyone. But like it or not, Windows has been the backbone of PC gaming for decades. Most developers still build for Windows first. Even on Linux, you’re usually running Windows games through Proton, not true Linux ports.

And honestly, it’s not Microsoft that’s closest to monopolizing PC gaming. It’s Valve. They control 85% of the storefront market. If SteamOS takes off, I doubt most people will bother installing Heroic just to run GOG or Epic games. Sure, it’s possible—but for the average gamer, it’s more hassle than it’s worth.

What we really need is more competition. I want to see an Xbox handheld running Windows, but also a GOG Deck, an EGS Deck, maybe even an Itch.io Deck.

Hell, imagine if Apple finally woke up to gaming and made a Mac Deck. Now that would shake things up.

I’ll be honest: as much as I love Xbox—I still have my OG and a 360—PC gaming has completely leapfrogged it in terms of value.

The whole appeal of the original Xbox was that it brought PC-style gaming to consoles. I never liked playing FPS games on console until Halo came along and proved it could actually work.

But over the last 15 years, Valve has basically turned PC gaming into a console experience. These days, instead of hooking up an Xbox to my TV, I just connect a PC tower. Honestly, it’s way easier than it used to be.

The last console that really offered something unique for me was the original Switch, mostly because it made going from handheld to TV effortless. But with the new wave of handhelds running SteamOS or Bazzite, that same seamless experience is now possible on PC hardware.

If Microsoft can make Windows as smooth and intuitive as SteamOS, then maybe they’ll be back in the game.

I own the original LCD Steam Deck. Still a fantastic device.

But after trying the newer handhelds, I have to admit: the upgrades are anything but minor. Visually, it’s a bigger leap than the jump from DS to DSi. The difference is immediately obvious.

Legion Go owner here—well, technically my wife’s.

You can dock a Windows 11 handheld, but it’s not exactly seamless. You have to dig into Settings, disable the handheld’s own display, and tell it to use the TV instead. No problem for me, but most people won’t bother. Hopefully, the next “gamer-specific” version of Windows makes this automatic when you dock.

That’s why I ended up dual-booting the Legion Go with Bazzite. Navigating with a controller is just easier, and I’m not waiting six months for another Windows version I might have to pay for.

We paid C$900 for the Legion Go, and honestly, it was worth the premium for three main reasons:

1. The controls: Think Joy-Cons, but better. They’re detachable, comfortable, and feel great in the hand.
2. The display: An 8.8” screen, 1600p, 144Hz. Gorgeous and smooth.
3. eGPU support: Plug in an external GPU when docked, and it turns into a serious gaming machine.

I get that some people just want a cheap handheld. But my wife—who’s not a PC enthusiast (her favorite game is Little Kitty, Big City)—thought it was worth it. It was still cheaper than her iPhone 16e.

If it weren’t for me getting three months for free, I wouldn’t use it at all.

For me, the problem is that there’s not enough games, and of the games that are there, they disappear too quickly.

It’s just easier to look for deals on Steam, GOG, or EGS and keep those games indefinitely. Hell, sometimes games are given away for free.

The claim that the Steam Deck runs unmodified Linux software “out of the box” glosses over a lot of caveats.

Sure, it’s possible—but only if the software is compatible with SteamOS’s Arch-based flavor of Linux, its dependencies, and its sandboxing. And to even attempt that, you have to exit Gaming Mode entirely and boot into Desktop Mode. From there, you’re dealing with a mouse-and-keyboard interface, and many apps require terminal commands, sudo access, or specific library versions to even launch. That’s not something you casually do with a game controller from your couch.

More importantly, I reject this narrow definition that “console” must mean a closed, locked-down system incapable of running general-purpose software. That might describe a traditional console, but it’s not a requirement. Plenty of recognized consoles have been open or hackable: the Ouya ran Android. The Miyoo Mini running OnionOS is basically a retro Linux handheld, yet it’s absolutely treated as a console by its user base. A Raspberry Pi running Batocera, plugged into a TV with a controller, is a console experience. Even the Nintendo DS, when booting homebrew off a flashcart, operates in the same way.

What actually defines a console isn’t the OS or whether it can run unmodified desktop software. It’s the user experience: you turn it on, pick a game, play with a controller, and everything revolves around gaming. The Steam Deck nails that. You don’t need to know it runs Linux. You don’t have to touch Desktop Mode. For the average user, it’s as much a console as a Switch or Xbox—just with a lot more flexibility if you go looking for it.

I mean, if that logic held up, then the Xbox wouldn’t count as a console either—because it literally runs a customized version of Windows under the hood. It boots into a UI shell, but it’s still Windows at the core, running DirectX just like a PC.

By that same standard, the PlayStation wouldn’t be a console either, since it’s running a customized BSD-based OS that can support a lot of traditional software frameworks.

The idea that a console must run completely proprietary software or require deep code rewrites for every game is just outdated. These days, the distinction is more about the delivery method and user experience than the underlying OS. Steam Deck boots into a curated interface, runs games with gamepad-first optimization, and delivers a console-like experience out of the box. Whether it’s using Proton or not doesn’t change that—it’s still targeting the exact use case of a console: plug in, pick a game, play.

So if the Xbox qualifies despite being a glorified Windows PC with a gamepad and a skin, then so does the Steam Deck. You don’t get to move the goalposts just because it runs Linux.

I was born in 1981. Not too much younger than you, but old enough to remember when the arcade scene was really bustling.

I’m of a different mind.

I’ve played so much Pac-Man and Space Invaders that I’ve simply had enough of it.

There’s only so much time left on the planet, and I’d much rather spend it on new and novel experiences. If I play retro games, they’re either games I really want to beat but haven’t. Or they’re unfamiliar.

I love PC gaming for exactly this reason. You get to early classics like Ultima, but then you get modern fare like Black Myth Wukong.

My reason for talking on the Internet about this stuff is because it’s hard to find people, outside of conventions, who give a damn about this hobby.

LOL.

No, not all PCs offer a consoles experience.

Yes, you can do all that. Hence why I refer to Steam Deck as a consolized PC.

That said, the console experience on Windows 11 is subpar. Bazzite and SteamOS are far superior in this regard.

To me, what makes a console a console is the console experience. As in, you should be able to navigate everything with a gamepad.