FRESH

Hacker News

Home

Why I think Valve’s retiring the Steam Deck LCD

72 points by Ariarule

by saidinesh5

2 subcomments

I just assumed that Valve ran out of the APUs AMD made for Steam Deck LCD.
There were news/rumours that it was originally designed for Magic Leap 2 and Valve got the leftovers for cheap: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/steam-decks-... .
If they're going to spend a premium on ordering a new batch, they might as well order the APU for the OLED model they charge full price right?

by b3lvedere

2 subcomments

I bought a 64GB model for around €200 from someone who bought it for his kids, but these kids did not like it.
I already did a lot of research on the device, plus i have over a thousand games in my Steam library, so this made it a very logical purchase. I ordered a 1TB disk from Amazon and installed within 15 minutes thanks to the IFixit documentation.
It’s a very versatile piece of hardware if you want it to be. Game emulation is very easy. Open Office and Kodi work flawlessly. HDMI output can be done with a cheap chinese adapter. Bluetooth takes care of other devices.
It’s BIOS is pretty easy and can boot from almost any device you can connect via the USB-C port.
Even running Windows 11 is possible, because Valve supplies the drivers for it. I tried it just for fun. How to reinstall the (Arch) Steam OS is well documented.
My kids love playing Lego City on it. I love playing Beat Hazard 3, Fallout 4, Skyrim and The Witcher 3 on it.
Will i buy the Steam Machine? Depends on the cost and it’s possibilities. If it can run streaming media like Netflix easily, it could make a very interesting replacement for the current media pc we’re using.

by vatary

1 subcomments

The retirement of the Steam Deck LCD feels less like a reaction to skyrocketing RAM/NAND costs and more like a strategic simplification of Valve’s product lineup. While rising component prices make for a convenient financial excuse, the "secret motivation" is likely operational efficiency: managing two different screen types (LCD vs. OLED), batteries, and motherboards complicates the supply chain significantly.
By cutting the LCD, particularly the 256GB model, Valve avoids internal competition where their "budget" option cannibalizes sales of their premium OLED units, which offer a much better user experience.
furthermore, with whispers of new hardware like the "Steam Frame" or a revamped "Steam Machine," Valve needs to clear the stage. The LCD Deck served its purpose as a pioneer, but keeping it alive indefinitely dilutes the brand's focus.
For consumers, it’s a double-edged sword; we lose the most affordable entry point into PC handheld gaming, but we gain a clearer, more unified path forward. Ultimately, this move signals that Valve is confident the OLED is the new standard, and they are aggressively pivoting resources toward whatever comes next.
The china's supply chain will let it be, what about you?

by emodendroket

1 subcomments

Information to text ratio pretty low and assumes some background knowledge I don’t actually have about the current state of Steam hardware offerings but I gather it’s because they’ve introduced new, more expensive hardware and no longer wish to have a budget item whose price is too far off from it.

by teaearlgraycold

1 subcomments

I think the Deck's capability to be relevant for years into the future depends entirely on whether PC game developers target it as a platform. Many of the top best selling video games from the past few years struggle on the deck even on low settings (Baldur's Gate 3, Oblivion Remastered are a couple I've tried with rough results). Of course there's still a massive PC backlog and ample lower spec games released each year.
Is anyone here aware of whether developers are using the Deck as a minimum spec and thus their technical constraints?

by bsimpson

0 subcomment

I have a Legion Go, which is basically a premium Steam Deck - playing similar games but on a nicer screen with a stronger GPU to drive it. I've been very happy with it - still playing nearly daily 2 years later.
All this hubbub about chip shortages has me wondering if it's going to extend the lifespan of these devices. Already in the Legion Go line, its successors are much more expensive but not much more performant. The line bifurcated into an entry level and a premium option, and both have a variant whose chip is derived from the same 7840 as the original model. That is, the Legion Go S and Legion Go 2 are both priced higher than the original, with a lower screen resolution and identical (or nearly identical) chipset. The only reason to choose one over the original is if you really need that extra RAM.
Like the Steam Deck, the Legion Go is still a perfectly serviceable device years later. The Deck competitors from Lenovo, ASUS, OneX, AYANEO, etc. are all built around basically the same chip that's a bit stronger but less power efficient than the Deck. The performance envelope hasn't really moved.
Tariffs and part shortages are making these devices a lot more expensive, but they aren't noticeably better than they were 2 years ago. In fact, Valve's upcoming Steam Machine has very similar specs, and was designed to outperform 70% of the devices currently gaming on Steam.
If prices are going up and performance is stagnating, people who already have gaming devices are going to be reluctant to upgrade. I expect these market forces are going to extend the lifespan of current-gen devices.
Most games take years to make. I wonder how many games currently in the production pipeline were banking on players having more performance available by the time the games are released, and how that is going to impact their reception.
The Steam Deck has been a really useful performance-and-feature anchor for computer gaming. Until hardware improves enough to justify a Steam Deck 2, I expect it will continue to maintain that position, improving the playable lifespan of all the other gaming devices in the market too.

by poulpy123

2 subcomments

I bought the steam deck because it was 420€. Now the cheapest one is at 570€. I would have never bought it at this price

by condensedcrab

0 subcomment

The pricing anchor concept is very intuitive and once you hear about it it’s hard to stop seeing at play.

by maxglute

1 subcomments

Steamdeck sold like 6m units, maybe valve gets a few 100m more selling OLED markup, but I feel like that's kind of peanuts for Valve who would rather push the platform. With price of PC these days and disenfranchisement with windows, I think Valve would rather have Steamdeck be Switch.

by 2gremlin181

0 subcomment

The article is glaring over a key point- Valve often sold the model at a 20% discount for $320. Clearly this is because the amount spent by a Steam Deck owner would make up the loss in BoM. If they believed they could continue to do so, they would.

by rootsudo

0 subcomment

I'm happy I got into the LED from the refurbished sale, the price point made it attractive. I was not much into gaming but I've been having a blast, the lowest price point also was ok for me since I am 100% comfortable with DIY on the SSD.
It is very much apparant I'm not Steam's ideal customer, but I'm happy I got it for about $249'ish? I hemmed and hawed alot thinking why am I buying a hand held pc for gaming but the switch 2 was sold out/to much work to reserve so I went for it and am really happy I did.

by skylurk

2 subcomments

I am not a gamer, but if they made an 11-inch tablet, I would buy it to replace my ipad and macbook. I already have a portable keyboard I really like.

by jszymborski

0 subcomment

tl;dr because this was a bit longs winded imo
> I believe that the end of the LCD line is an entirely strategic move.
> With the discontinuation of the LCD and the introduction of the Machine and Frame, the OLED will suddenly occupy the "Pricing Anchor" slot for Valve's first-party lineup of gaming hardware.
> Crucially, I believe Valve sees the $399 price as too low.

by shmerl

9 subcomments

They should refresh Steam Deck more often still. Laptops and phones have more frequent refresh cadence, why not gaming devices.
May be it shouldn't be as frequent, but still more frequent than what it has now.