Valve has announced a new Steam Deck, with a bit of a catch. The last few years have seen a pretty significant shift in the way people game. Handhelds have been a part of gaming for decades, but outside of games specifically made for them (like Pokemon), players were given a much different experience from the console counterparts of their games. Things began to really change with Nintendo Switch, though. A ton of AAA games were developed for Nintendo Switch alongside Xbox One and PS4 versions, giving players the opportunity to play huge games like DOOM on the go. It was a real game changer and is a big reason why the Switch is one of the most successful pieces of gaming hardware ever and simultaneously showed other companies that there’s a serious market for this kind of experience.
After that, Valve began developing the Steam Deck, a handheld that allows people to play their Steam library on the go. For the first time, games like Marvel’s Spider-Man and Red Dead Redemption 2 could be experienced outside of your home and could be enjoyed from a plane, a bus, or anywhere else. As this was happening, other companies released their PC gaming handhelds as well, offering viable competition at high-end prices. The Steam Deck itself has been a tremendous success, spawned an OLED revision, and Valve has already confirmed there will be more Steam Decks in the future. It will be a while before the “Steam Deck 2” comes about because Valve is waiting for a notable leap in power while being able to keep it reasonably priced.
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However, in the meantime, Valve is still trying to give people reasons to buy more Steam Deck units. The latest example comes in the way of a brand new limited edition white Steam Deck OLED model. There are no differences in power or performance from the regular Steam Deck OLED model, but the white is certainly a flashy, eye-catching look.
“Last year, we released a smoky translucent limited edition Steam Deck OLED as an experiment to find out if there was interest in alternative colorways (there was!). This is our second experiment along those lines,” Valve explained (via Eurogamer). “The difference this time (aside from the color!) is that we’re able to ship the Limited Edition White to all regions where Steam Deck already ships. We’re curious to see what the response is, and will use what we learn to inform future decisions about any potential new color variants down the line.”
This will be a true limited edition as Valve says once it’s gone, it’s gone. It will not be restocked and won’t be easily acquired. To get one, customers can purchase it through Steam on November 18th at 3 PM PST. This bad boy will be just a white version of the 1TB Steam Deck OLED model and will cost $679. If you want one, you must have a Steam account that was created before November 2024 and be in good standing. As of right now, Valve hasn’t said how many there will be. However, if you want a Steam Deck and aren’t able to nab the white one, there will be plenty of regular OLED ones available as well.
It sounds like Valve is continuing to experiment with more color variants for the Steam Deck. It’s possible we’ll see even more color variants of the Steam Deck in 2025 and maybe, if the demand is there, the Steam Deck 2 will launch in a few years with more than one color. All of this is pure speculation, but it does seem like a good way for Valve to drive sales.