Good point, but arguably it's that Steam (rather than Steam Deck) won, as (with the relatively low hardware margins) they probably prefer that it be others like Asus and Lenovo selling steam handhelds.

SteamDeck "success" is still out there to validate.

Doesn't have the sales of any Nintendo handheld that has earned its place on history books, and remains to be seen for how long Microsoft will tolerate Proton as Windows/DirectX translation layer.

I think the window for Microsoft to squash Proton (if that was ever practical) has already passed. Valve will be able to stand up to any litigious bullying and they have financial incentive to do so. And defeating it from the technical side with a new interface would require buy-in from developers, which Microsoft has consistently been unable to obtain.

What do you reckon Microsoft can do about Proton?

Apparently there aren’t any sales figures but most estimates puts it at 1% of the Nintendo Switch sales.

I don't think it has meaningful volume to be considered a winner. Mental to physical share ratio is low, similar to Boston Dynamics in robotics, RISC-V in processors, etc.

There are now a ton of competitors to it though -- it's become a new format for gaming PCs. Whether or not the Steam Deck itself is the winner, I think the form factor is here to stay. And I can't imagine why (as an owner of a Switch Lite and a Steam Deck) why I would want a Switch 2.