Xbox & Nintendo Switch Owners, How Do You Split Your Third-Party Purchases?

These days, there are more options than ever for playing third-party games across a wide range of devices. Xbox, PlayStation, PC, Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, ASUS ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go... even Android and iOS at times!

If you own multiple versions of these, it suddenly becomes difficult to figure out which third-party games to buy for which devices. Sure, Xbox might be your main platform, but you obviously still want to buy for other systems as well.

Take the Switch, for example. Over the past seven years, we've seen so many Xbox games make their way over to Nintendo's hybrid console, with the obvious bonus being that it functions in both docked and handheld modes. The big downside compared to Xbox, though, is that most games look and run worse on Nintendo's aging hardware.

But that's not always a deal-breaker! There are some Xbox games that we'd love to play in handheld form, but for the time being we can't do that without buying them on Switch, a PC handheld or accessing them via Xbox Remote Play (which is great, but obviously not a native experience). Therefore, we've opted to buy the likes of Hades, the LEGO Harry Potter Collection and Worms W.M.D. on Switch, despite them looking better on Xbox Series X and S.

When you throw the Steam Deck into the mix, that's when things get even more interesting. It's quite possible to get similar performance between Xbox and the Steam Deck in certain titles, and the ability to play those games in handheld form is an alluring prospect. The ROG Ally and the Legion Go are Windows-based handhelds, of course, so that's where Xbox Play Anywhere comes in - allowing you to buy a supported game on Xbox and get it on PC as well.

Let's not get too ahead of ourselves, though - today, we want to mainly focus on how you split your purchases between Xbox and Nintendo Switch, because we're particularly interested on how much you prioritise visuals and performance over portability. How important is the handheld experience to you, and does it affect your Xbox purchases?

How Often Do You Prioritise Switch Over Xbox For Third-Party Purchases? (609 votes)

  1. I actually buy most of my third-party games on Switch!%
  2. I quite often favour Switch over Xbox to be honest%
  3. I'm somewhere in the middle, I just mix it up%
  4. I usually favour Xbox, but occasionally go for Switch instead%
  5. I pretty much never pick the Switch over Xbox!%

If You Own Multiple Devices, Which Do You Buy The Most Third-Party Games For? (638 votes)

  1. Xbox%
  2. PlayStation%
  3. Nintendo Switch%
  4. PC / Mac%
  5. PC Handheld (Steam Deck, ROG Ally, etc)%
  6. Android / iOS  0.2%
  7. Other  0.2%

We want to hear your thoughts about this in the polls above and comments section down below!