In case you’re out of the loop, the old Steam Deck had Philips screws that screwed into self-tapping plastic holes. This lead to occasional stripped threads and often stripped screwheads.

Valve absolutely did not have to change their screws, and its probably actually against their best interests. While other companies around the world are constantly in search of new ways to screw their own consumers, Valve goes out of their way to update their screws to make them easier to install/remove by changing to torx screws and added metal threads in the backplate. Those who know anything about mechanical engineering know this is not an insignificant amount of effort they put into it.

This is a small change that makes a huge impact, and speaks volumes about the ethos of the company. It says:

  1. We want to make our devices last longer, and be easier to repair.

  2. If you want to buy the cheaper tier and save yourself a few bucks by installing whatever SSD you want, go right ahead.

  3. We trust you to make decisions for yourself.

  4. Most importantly, we respect you, the consumer, and want you to fully own and control the devices we sell.

Valve is by no means perfect, and there’s plenty more they could be doing, but they’ve earned my respect and my patronage and I won’t buy games from anywhere else. I will buy whatever future products they sell, even if I don’t think I’ll use them regularly.

  • ascagnel@beehaw.org
    4·
    1 year ago

    Three thoughts:

    • Valve doesn’t use physical media, so there isn’t a need to enforce DRM at the hardware level
    • the Deck itself is sold at a small profit regardless of the configuration, so there’s no benefit to pushing users to higher-price configurations
    • Valve enforces its DRM in software via the OS

    The biggest reasons to lock down hardware aren’t really there on the Deck. On top of that, it benefits Valve to have other devices running their storefront, so using off-the-shelf parts when possible makes it easier for others to use the Deck as a template.

      • jarfil@beehaw.org
        1·
        1 year ago

        Apple’s business model is to sell hardware, in order to “extract as much money from the consumer as humanly possible” they “need” to protect hardware sales first and foremost.

        Valve’s business model is to sell software, in order to “extract […] possible” they “need” to have as much compatible hardware as possible.

        You can argue that Apple’s business model is antiquated or suboptimal, but you’ll have to prove that freeing their hardware and reducing prices, would mean an equal or higher increase in benefits from their app store and subscriptions.