Valve hasn’t denied that the Nintendo Switch is a big inspiration for the Steam Deck, with the company taking several pages from Nintendo’s playbook. Not only are we getting the Steam Deck OLED later this week, but the company is also considering different colored Steam Deck models.
Yazan Aldehayyat, a hardware designer for Valve, spoke with Axios about the upcoming OLED model and hopes for a potential Steam Deck 2. While that technology is years away, Aldehayyat said Valve is considering releasing colored models of the Deck after the limited OLED model with orange highlights made the rounds.
"If a bunch of people want to buy these, then that'll be a signal to us that we're on the right path," Aldehayyat says.
Considering just how popular the Steam Deck is, we’re actually surprised that the company hasn’t released colored models yet. Fans have tinkered and colored their models with paint or custom skins, showing that the desire for different colors is there.
Nintendo has proven that this is a fairly successful route to go into, as the company has released numerous Switch models. Whether it’s the V1, the OLED, or the Lite, each one has a number of colored variants, most of which look great. The black Switch Lite based on Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl in particular is a real beauty.
With Valve already copying the OLED model format for the Steam Deck, they might as well go full Nintendo and make colored variants. As much as this writer loves his Steam Deck, the black color can be a bit boring, so a different color would be appreciated.
Then again, fans can always go to the various Deck competitors if they want a different color. It might not be as popular, but the ASUS Rog Ally is a beautiful machine, even if the general consensus has declared Steam the winner on that front.
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Fans can purchase a Steam Deck and pre-order the Steam Deck OLED on, well, Steam.