First, it was SEGA vs. Nintendo, then it was Nintendo vs. PlayStation vs. Xbox, and then it was just PlayStation vs. Xbox, while Nintendo was off doing its own thing. A new frontier is upon us, which you might’ve already guessed based on the title.

Now that SteamOS is going to be available on any device that wants it, Nintendo is the last platform that truly has console-selling exclusives, and the Nintendo Switch 2 is on the horizon. The tides are turning. The future won’t be more PlayStation vs. Xbox or even PlayStation vs. Nintendo. The future is Steam and Nintendo, while everyone else fights for third place.

Nintendo stands alone

Sometimes, sticking to the old ways can be an advantage

There’s only one platform manufacturer that is still completely true to the business model that has been in the games industry for the last 40 years. Since PlayStation began publishing all its first-party titles on PC, and since Xbox has been publishing its first-party titles on PC, Nintendo Switch, and PS5, Nintendo remains the last console maker with any real exclusives.

Nintendo’s lineup of first-party games, based on characters and franchises with decades of history and long-established communities, is so strong that a new entry in nearly any of their franchises could be considered a system-seller. PlayStation and Xbox no longer have exclusives, just gaps between when their first-party games are stuck on one platform before being moved to another.

Not only is Nintendo the last of the console makers to keep its exclusives locked up, but it also doesn't just try to rely on the nostalgic weight each franchise carries. Nintendo is more than willing to take its biggest characters and try something completely new with them, like building a physical racing toy around Mario Kart or making players create objects with cardboard and use it to play their games. And let's not forget the Super Mario 35 and F-Zero 99 games.

Nintendo has long-standing franchises that bring people back, and it's not afraid to experiment with them in odd and sometimes surprisingly fun ways. Nintendo is making games you can't play anywhere else in ways no one can predict.

Steam and Nintendo do it all

The name of the game is choice

Beyond Nintendo’s exclusive lineup, the company is the only console maker that caters to families and young children. Family games and games for younger kids are a giant chunk of the market that Nintendo essentially has a stronghold over because PlayStation and Xbox stopped putting a big effort into making games for families and young kids long ago.

On top of that, any adult with a Nintendo Switch can tell you that plenty of more mature options are also available on Switch. Sure, your kid can play all the Mario they want, but once they go to bed, you can also pick it up and enjoy some time in Dark Souls, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, or Alien: Isolation.

The same applies to the Steam Deck and the library available to PC players on Steam. It doesn't have Nintendo titles, but you can find a myriad of third-party games that are family-friendly and every other bloody, violent, crass, and crude game under the sun you could ever want. In this way, Nintendo and Steam have the widest range of games available on their platforms. Nintendo even rounds out its family-friendly side by making toys, movies, and even LEGOs to cover any and all remaining bases beyond games.

SteamOS is here to change everything

Nintendo Switch proved the concept, Steam Deck and SteamOS perfected it

It’s almost impossible to overstate the impact the Nintendo Switch, as a device, has had on the video game industry. With the Switch, Nintendo proved that a hybrid device between a home console and a handheld could work on a huge scale.

Valve then stepped in and stepped everything up. With the Steam Deck and all the following devices, we’ve seen how the dream of taking any game with us, wherever we go, is not just possible. It’s real; it’s here, and you can do it right now with any number of gaming PC handheld devices launched in the last two years.

SteamOS, for its part, showed that you can have your games with you everywhere and can all be experienced through a console-like, plug-in-and-play experience on the Steam Deck. So, with SteamOS becoming available on any platform that wants it in the coming months, Valve will continue its PC market monopoly.

So, Nintendo Switch proved that people actually really love being able to take their game libraries with them and still dock them at home. Steam Deck went further to prove that this was possible with pretty much any game. SteamOS then brings it all home by making PC gaming feel as close as possible to console gaming in terms of convenience.

Change is coming

There’s no denying that PlayStation currently enjoys chart-topping hardware sales with the PS5. However, with the Nintendo Switch 2 due out later this year and SteamOS releasing a public beta, a new era of the video game industry is coming. Nintendo and Valve are poised to dominate the future of the video game industry while everyone else competes for third place.