>>717738607
Their answer for why they came up with the deck itself, independent from using it as a vehicle for steamos, was that they frequently found themselves wanting to play their large pc libraries conveniently wherever they wanted instead of it all being shackled to a desktop or a less convenient laptop. It's why they were so adamant about nailing the instant sleep/resume feature before release. That was a separate answer to a separate question and they didn't say anything about the switch for that. The deck also isn't a "hybrid" per say, at least not in nintendo's marketing terms. Its ability to plug into a monitor is a very quiet feature that exists more simply because it's a pc, rather than a dedicated one they actively had to work on. It doesn't even come with a dock, it comes with a carrying case.
You're right, they did say that they didn't consider the deck to be taking away from the switch's market share, but that's because they weren't thinking about that audience, they were focused on how to appeal to pc users, not a mass market, especially when the deck and proton was rougher around the edges at launch and it wasn't as suited for a casual user. But they have quickly been refining and improving it into a very easy to use and casual friendly system.
>Are they?
Yes. They know they can't compete with steam and they're turning xbox hardware into PCs. Steam quietly crushed competition like amazon without anyone even realizing it. Microsoft certainly isn't going to roll over for steamos, but they're not about to lose more money by denying steam when they know everyone's just going to use it anyway. They already have a windows store that nobody likes or would buy their system for.
