As far as the on-the-go handheld gaming market is concerned, the Nintendo Switch and its successor the Switch 2 aren’t the only available options, as Valve’s Steam Deck, a handheld PC that can also be docked for full-screen play, is majorly popular among enthusiasts, along with a smattering of other similar devices like the ROG Xbox Ally.
For some time now, Valve has offered a cheaper LCD-based handheld, as well as a more expensive OLED model, giving gamers some flexibility in their purchase.
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Well, so much for that.
As first spotted by The Verge, the LCD Steam Deck has seemingly been discontinued by Valve. Over on the Steam Store, where you can actively purchase an OLED model, the 256GB LCD variant is now out of stock. A note at the bottom notes that the handheld will almost certainly never be reproduced.
“We are no longer producing the Steam Deck LCD 256GB model,” the note read. “Once sold out, it will no longer be available.”
For reference, the base 256GB LCD model was being sold for $399. A 512GB OLED model, the smallest amount of storage available, checks in at $549 and the 1TB variant at $649, jumps of $150 and $250, respectively.
Should the LCD model never return, it’ll mark the end of not only the most affordable version of the Steam Deck, but one of the most affordable handheld PCs overall.
Sure, Logitech’s G Cloud device is technically cheaper at $299.99, but it’s a streaming-based device that doesn’t even come close to what the Steam Deck was able to offer at its lowest model, including, well, the ability to actually download your games.
In a separate piece from Windows Central’s Adam Hales, the journalist speculated that the rising prices of RAM and storage could have made it harder to justify having an LCD handheld on the market. If we’re allowed to further speculate, it’s entirely possible that those rising prices would’ve had to necessitate a price hike, thus eliminating the purpose of a cheaper alternative when it would inch closer in price to its OLED counterpart.
What About The Refurbished Market?
One thing that Vavle did establish in the years since it first released the Steam Deck was a company-owned refurbished marketplace that went as far as to provide purchasers with the same one-year warranty that brand-new customers are also afforded.
Those units come via returns, and involve an “extensive examination involving over 100 tests at one of Valve’s facilities” before being put on the market.
That said, for the refurbished market to be active, there needs to be returns, and those return units must meet Valve’s strict requirements before they’re ever resold. Given that the LCD system is essentially discontinued, there likely won’t be a revival of that storefront, removing yet another way to jump in at the base level.
At one point, GameStop ran its own offshoot refurbished market, separate from Valve, though it appears that the program is no longer around. Furthermore, it seems the retailer is no longer taking in Steam Decks for trade-in.
Anyone wanting in at the LCD level will almost certainly have to turn to eBay, where a thriving market does exist, albeit at the expense of some rather shady listings, including devices that have been modded or have defects. That market will seemingly only get more complex as word of the discontinuation spreads and those LCD consoles become “rare.”
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