The Steam Deck goes cheap: Steam Spring Sale includes "one-time deal" discounts on the handheld

rockpapershotgun.com:

Dodgy reseller listings aside, the Steam Deck has spent its entire life thus far without even a temporary price drop. That ends today, as the Steam Spring Sale has launched with the first official Steam Deck savings - a 10% cut across the range - alongside the more expected dealsplosion of discounted games.

What’s more, this sale could also be the last time that the Steam Deck joins in a Steam sale, at least for a very long time. Lawrence Yang, a Valve designer who recently spoke to us about the Deck’s first year in the wild, has also told me that the company are "looking at this as a one-time deal in celebration of Steam Deck's anniversary." You’ll therefore have until March 23rd, when the Spring Sale ends, to seize a saving on the handheld PC before it returns to base pricing – maybe for good.

All three Steam Deck versions are part of the sale, shedding exactly 10% apiece. The 64GB model is down from £349 / $399 to £314.10 / $359.10, the 256GB model drops from £459 / $529 to £413.10 / $476.10, and the top 512GB model falls from £569 / $649 to £512.10 / $584.10. Unlike the sad old days of 2022, there’s no lengthy waiting period once you put your order in, though I wouldn’t be surprised if it takes the full two weeks of Valve’s one-to-two week delivery estimate, what with the likely surge in demand.

Should you buy a Steam Deck at these discounted prices? Dunno, mate, it’s your money. Although, I will gladly repeat myself when I say that the Steam Deck was good when it launched and has only improved since, benefitting from a series of software-based feature upgrades. Indeed, it was a matter of hours ago that Valve enabled a nifty local game data sharing system, making for much faster installs when you already have the