Plenty of PC gaming fans were excited when Valve announced the Steam Deck last month. After all, based on Valve's confidence in the handheld PC, it seems like a must-buy for anyone looking to take their Steam library with them on the go. So far, in all the hands-on previews with the machine, the handheld was a sleek black color in line with many other systems like the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 4. It was recently revealed by Valve, however, that the company has considered making the Steam Deck in multiple different colors.
If there really are color variants of the Steam Deck on the horizon, allowing fans to choose their preferred color in a similar way to choosing Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons, then Valve might be open to allowing for other types of customization as well. With the growing demand for personalized gaming hardware, it seems like Valve might be right on trend as things such as the Xbox Design Lab have gone over well with the Xbox community. When it comes to game-specific custom consoles, however, it's looking like the Steam Deck is far ahead all of its other console competition.
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Custom video game consoles have been around for nearly as long as home consoles themselves. While plenty of third-party customization options exist, there has been a growing trend in recent years for console manufacturers to partner with different games to make variants of their hardware that's themed around a specific title. Nintendo does this frequently with their first-party properties, but recently paired with companies like Epic Games to make Fortnite-specific Joy-Cons and with Capcom to make a limited-edition Monster Hunter Rise Switch bundle.
Microsoft and Sony also do limited runs of game-specific consoles, but the companies do them a little less often than Nintendo and usually stick with their first-party titles when it comes to picking the themes. Recently, Xbox announced that it would be doing a giveaway for a Psychonauts 2-themed Xbox Series X, and in 2020, Sony made a limited-run of PS4 Pros engraved with imagery from The Last of Us 2.
As such, it stand to reason that Valve may initially stick to simple color variants for the Steam Deck, but the company might also try its hand at game-specific custom consoles down the road. These sorts of limited edition consoles are usually loved by collectors and fans of the games they're inspired by alike. When paired with the extreme popularity of the Steam Deck, it's likely that game-specific limited editions of the mobile PC would also be popular.
Fortunately for Valve, the Steam Deck is set up perfectly for making custom editions because of the massive library of titles that each variant could be inspired by. In terms of officially produced custom consoles, the variants are limited by the libraries of each platform. This is why there aren't any official Legend of Zelda custom Xboxes, as cool as that may sound. However, because of how staggeringly large the number of titles on Steam is, the possibilities for Steam Deck customization options is seemingly limitless.
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As PC gaming continues to be on the rise, more and more publishers are looking to get their games on the platform. Even though they also appear on Game Pass the day they launch, just about every Xbox exclusive title makes its way to Steam as well. Additionally, although the rollout has been pretty slow, Sony has also been publishing its first-party titles on Steam with many of the newly announced games marketed as "PlayStation exclusives" also receiving PC ports. Both of these companies have essentially opened the door for possible tie-ins with the Steam Deck by publishing on the platform.
The only major console producer that doesn't list its games on Steam is Nintendo, but because the Switch is in direct competition with the Steam Deck as a hybrid handheld console, it makes sense that the two companies might not have much synergy between them. This is made especially true as there are PC ports of Nintendo titles, but they aren't official and Nintendo tries its hardest to get them removed from the PC.
Because of the number of titles available on Steam, it seems like the options for game-specific custom Steam Decks are unlimited. Valve's first-party titles alone would have custom consoles selling out in minutes. Left 4 Dead, Half Life, Dota, Team Fortress, and Portal-themed Steam Decks all seem like very viable options that fans of Valve and their games would get as soon as they could. Other Steam hits could have their own versions as well. For example, titles like Hades, Stardew Valley, and Valheim all seem like great candidates. Even though some games may come to other platforms at some point down the road, the studios could reward fans for sticking with them when their games were PC-only titles.
As seen with games like Hades, Phasmophobia, and Valheim, there is no shortage of popular early access titles would pair well with Steam Deck variants. If a game gets as big as something like Satisfactory did before its official launch, when it comes time for version 1.0 to release, the studio behind the games could partner with Valve to create a limited-run of a game-specific Steam Deck to celebrate the title leaving early access.
This sort of pairing with titles whose identities are inherently tied with their time on Steam would put the Steam Deck in a great position to make fast-selling limited variants. Because of the enormity of titles that make their way to Steam, Valve's options are essentially only limited by how many different Steam Deck variants that the company wants floating around. It's likely that the different colored variants will be coming first, but it also seems likely that game-specific Steam Deck variants won't be too far behind them.
The Steam Deck will launch in December 2021.
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