The Steam Deck will obviously bring comparisons to the Nintendo Switch, and people have done in-depth, side-by-side breakdowns of their performance, screen, weight and more. The one big difference right now is the variety of color the Switch can have through it’s different Joy-Cons, while the Steam Deck will just be black at launch. However, Valve has stated there could be a possibility of releasing different colorways for its handheld.
According to an interview with PC Gamer, Valve deliberated for a while about how to color the Steam Deck. While its matte-black shell might seem an extremely common choice, it wasn’t an easy decision. But it seems Valve is interested in exploring the idea of multiple color options, especially if its commercial launch is a success.
“[There was a lot of] genuinely fun exploration around that stuff,” product designer Greg Coomer said. “Even discussions like, ‘well, can we have lots of colors?’ We had all those discussions. We are continuing to have those now.”
The single-color choice had more to do with supply-chain issues than any aesthetic reason. “It’s essentially like a logistics thing,” Coomer stated. “Having a lot of SKUs in the market is just a lot more complicated. There isn’t really a better reason than that for right now.”
The Steam Deck is set to release later this year, and it will come in three different storage options, all with varying price points.
