Valve Shares CAD Files That Let You 3D Print Your Own Steam Deck

thegamer.com:

The Steam Deck is set to make its grand debut later this month. Well, sort of. People who reserved their Deck will get the opportunity to actually confirm their purchase by responding to an email, and those that do will see their Deck’s sent out shortly thereafter. The earliest Deck arrivals will likely be sometime in March.

Which gives you plenty of time to personalize your Steam Deck by creating a custom 3D-printed shell courtesy of these CAD files. Valve recently released the Steam Deck blueprints (including this lovely PDF file of the schematics) which allows anyone with the technical know-how to use a 3D printer to create their own shell for their Deck.

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The idea here is for Deck owners to get creative with their Deck’s outer appearance, which in its standard form is mostly just matte black plastic. It still looks great, but maybe you want your Deck to make a personal statement. "We're looking forward to seeing what the community creates,” wrote Valve.

Obviously, these CAD files don't allow you to make an entire Deck as you'd need screws, touchpads, buttons, a screen, and the AMD-sourced hardware that powers the Deck. But it does mean that third-party manufacturers will be able to easily make their own aftermarket parts to sell if you don't happen to own a 3D printer.

While Valve is giving away CAD files to support the Deck's arrival, it's also making sure as many games are verified for the Deck as possible. Just last week, Valve granted 150 more games the coveted green checkmark, bringing the total up to 310 games.

Unfortunately, that doesn't include Fortnite, but you could always just download Windows on your Deck and play Fortnite that way.

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