Valve Reveals Its Working Steam Deck Prototypes
Steam Deck developer Pierre-Loup Griffais has unveiled a whole range of Valve’s original working prototypes for the new handheld.
As part of the Steam Deck’s launch event in Asia, Valve has put together a display of the Steam Deck’s original prototypes, and Griffais has unveiled the never-before-seen line-up on Twitter.
“As part of the Asia launch press event, we made the design lab into a showroom of development history,” he said. “My favorite are the playable prototypes: bootable Deck family tree from mid-2019 to now, from a couple of hand-built units onto gradual mass production.”
As part of the Asia launch press event, we made the design lab into a showroom of development history. My favorite are the playable prototypes: bootable Deck family tree from mid-2019 to now, from a couple of hand-built units onto gradual mass production. pic.twitter.com/TpU5I8D50p
Valve’s Steam Deck was released on February 25, 2022, but was in development for years. The above display depicts different iterations of the Steam Deck throughout its development from mid-2019 – showcasing the different designs the company went through before finalizing the Steam Deck.
While the basic elements have remained the same, the Deck has seen different experiments with colorways (including colored face buttons), D-Pads, sizes, button shapes, and more. It looks as though there was at least one version that was a fair bit slimmer, too.
“The best part is that they (mostly) all still boot, serving as an exciting reminder of how far things have come since,” said Griffais, uploading a video of a Steam Deck prototype running (below). “This one has a Picasso APU, at about half of the GPU power of the final Deck. The flatter ergo was an interesting experiment and
Read more on ign.com
