SteamDB pulled some interesting information about the future of Steam Decks.
The call is coming from inside the house! Valve hasn’t shared any plans publicly to start selling recertified refurbished Steam Decks. That didn’t stop SteamDB from finding listings of such that were accidentally been made public for a few minutes though.
According to the “leaked” listings, they were all marked as “Certified Refurbished” and came in three flavors. Those that already know the main Steam Deck options will not be surprised that the listings were for the 64GB, 256GB, and 512GB models.
They were originally spotted on August 7th. Pretty quickly, the names were all changed to “Unknown App”, and eventually just were removed completely.
Pavel Djundik, the creator of SteamDB, listed the found information, including the alleged pricing. Images are shown over on Wario64 as well. The store pages, linked below, now send you to Steam’s main storefront.
As you can see, the items are lower in price than their pristine, in-box counterparts. Each refurb is dropped by $80. Depending on how many units they have, this could allow for additional sales and discounts on them in the future.
The Steam Deck, for the console gamers in our audience, is a stand-alone, portable, Steam-capable piece of hardware made by Valve. While resembling a Nintendo Switch, it only offers users the ability to play software and games directly from Steam.
It’s become incredibly popular among PC players since it was released last year for on-the-go travel and gameplay.
While it definitely isn’t a competitor to Nintendo’s flagship system, it does have competition. The Asus ROG Ally, for instance, has been recently encroaching on its territory with a solid piece of hardware.
So, offering a much cheaper option of the Steam Deck could turn the tide in this tug-of-war it’s engaged in with Asus and others. “Why buy the more expensive piece of equipment,” says the imaginary executive in our head, “when you can get the actual Steam Deck for mere pennies?”
While nothing is technically confirmed, the original leak did come from Valve and Steam itself. So, take it with some grains of salt until they reveal this officially.