"If we could have shipped this originally, we would have" says Valve's Lawrence Yang.
A Valve employee has shared how the recently announced OLED version of the Steam Deck is now seen as the "definitive" first take on their handheld PC offering.
In a recent interview with Axios Yazan Aldehayyat and Lawrence Yang, both of whom are designers at Valve, briefly shared their thoughts on this new OLED iteration of the company's popular handheld device.
Valve's commitment to hardware has admittedly been a little patchy in the past, with devices such as the Steam Link and Steam Controller left to languish — however Aldehayyat is keen to outline Valve's ongoing commitment to the Steam Deck as a hardware platform, noting that a future "Steam Deck 2.0 is necessary" and this new OLED version is just the next step in the company's road map.
Although specific details aren't known, it's been revealed that the Steam Deck has now sold "multiple millions" of system's since launch — which I'm taking to mean less than 10 million, but that's purely speculation on my part.
Yang added that if the company could have shipped this OLED model originally back in February of 2022 then the company "would have" — stating that this new model, which has several notable improvements, is now seen as "the definitive first-generation Steam Deck". So, if there was any doubt as to which model Valve thinks you should be buying, that should be now clear.
The Steam Deck OLED is available starting November 16th from $549.
Kevin Wammer