If you haven’t bought a Steam Deck because of the price, you’re in some semblance of luck. It turns out that Valve is now selling refurbished models of its handheld gaming PC at discounted prices.
The information was confirmed on the official Steam Deck Twitter page recently. Indeed, if you head over to the store page itself, you can now get repaired versions of any of the three variations of the device.
Introducing Valve Certified Refurbished Steam Decks! These are fully tested at Valve facilities and come with the same 1-year warranty as a new Deck. Supplies are limited and expect these to come in and out of stock as available.
Learn more here: https://t.co/oVedF5MDU8 pic.twitter.com/xBWWN2gbgH— Steam Deck (@OnDeck) August 8, 2023
According to the tweet, supplies are limited, but they have been “fully tested” and still come with a one-year warranty. At the time of writing, the store page is currently out of the 64GB model, so they do seem to be going fast.
Currently, they are priced at $319 (£279) for the 64GB version, $419 (£369) for 256GB, and $519 (£459) for 512GB.
Rumors, rumors, rumors
Funnily enough, it came to light that “certified refurbished” Steam Decks were going to go on sale before Valve actually confirmed it. As spotted by Wario64, an image was taken from the Steam store that showed the repaired Decks on sale for a reduced price.
These images were allegedly taken down pretty quickly, but it wasn’t long after that the leak was then confirmed.
Refurbished Steam Decks are going up on Steam
64GB https://t.co/n5qnagMqbv
256GB https://t.co/n5qnagMqbv
512GB https://t.co/farN6kbidP pic.twitter.com/XlTApzIqSB— Wario64 (@Wario64) August 7, 2023
In any case, it’s now come to fruition, so if you want a cheaper Deck, now seems to be the time.
The market grows
It’s overall good news for those who have been waiting in the wings for the cost of a Steam Deck to go down. Of course, they have been included in recent Steam sale events, but now it seems like selling refurbished ones may be a more permanent fixture. If you don’t mind a second-hand model that’s been repaired, it could save you a decent amount of money.
On top of that, the mobile PC gaming market is now getting more competitive. With the ASUS ROG Ally having recently come out (which is more expensive but packs more up-to-date hardware than the Steam Deck), there’s already an alternative out there.
It’s also possible that Lenovo may be making its own device, so things may get crowded in this industry soon. As such, Valve may want to consider how it’s going to stay on top. Selling refurbished Steam Decks is just one answer.
