As they promised, Valve will actually offer spare parts for the Steam Deck for sale. One of its distributors will be iFixit, a renowned specialist in the dismantling and reassembly of all types of technical equipment.

At a time when repair rights are being discussed in the United States, Valve is clearly eager to be a model student on the subject. The company had already announced its intention to offer for sale the Steam Deck, spare parts for its PC/portable game console. A few days before the official launch of the machine, it reveals the first concrete information: the iFixit website, the most well-known international specialist in dismantling and repair of technical equipment, will be one of (but not the only) authorized distributors. ) for these spare parts.

The announcement was to be celebrated in good and proper form, and is accompanied by the publication of a video by iFixit of a complete teardown of one of the first copies of the Steam deck. The transparency exercise from Valve is pretty remarkable — and iFixit’s video actually has fun doing everything the creators advised against doing in their own (and very incomplete) teardown video. ,

Remarkably accessible internal components with the exception of the battery

Regardless, iFixit’s findings about the machine’s repairability are excellent overall. She particularly notes the ease with which the Steam Deck can be opened, and the clarity with which all of its components are labeled inside. The modular design of the sticks is also underlined: with each stick being installed on its own dedicated mini-printed circuit, it can be easily replaced without touching any soldering points. This will be especially welcomed when the inevitable problems stick drift will begin to surface – as is the case with almost all game controllers. gets tough.

Also note that this announcement comes days after Valve’s publication of CAD files that described the Steam deck’s surface topology with near-perfect accuracy—and therefore accomplished making the machine a dream item for DIYers. has gone.