I dropped my launch edition steam deck last night on carpet and while all the buttons still worked- something was rattling inside of it. After I opened it up I discovered a missing chunk of plastic from the R2 trigger, that piece presses against another to keep the button from over articulating. I suspect this trigger absorbed most of the impact, there was no other visible damage.
Of course I was upset that I broke it, but so very pleasantly surprised to find ifixit had the trigger in stock and reasonably priced. This availability made me love the deck even more, and really the fact valve made these parts available places the deck above any other competition in my mind.
This machine is built to last, I am so excited to get it fixed and get back to gaming.
Gotta appreciate Valve continuing to be a master class in how a successful company should behave
It should be theoretically in a company’s long term financial interest to keep customers at least reasonably happy, but the infinite growth mindset is such a cancer that you can see it tearing apart any number of old established brands these days (cough Boeing, eg).
Looks like GabeN decided that going to sleep each night on piles of billions of dollars was enough and he didn’t need to supplement his pillows with the customers’ nickels and dimes as well. Feels like that shouldn’t be such a strange mindset, but apparently it’s rare enough to stand out.
It doesn’t even just have to be about money, Valve is one of the only major tech companies I can think of that seems to actually care about customer feedback. They don’t acquiesce to every request and complaint, it’s unrealistic to expect any company to do that, but just in general, Valve genuinely seems to listen more on the whole.
Too many tech companies have convinced themselves that the silent majority’s silence equals approval, and therefore the “vocal minority” of complaints need never be taken seriously. But what they don’t appreciate is the most vocal criticisms tend to come from enthusiasts, and when you cater to the average users only, you are slowly making your product less remarkable.
Steamdeck feels like a product made for that “vocal minority”. It addresses so many concerns that other tech companies would hand wave away because “most people aren’t complaining”.
i am convinced the vast majority of decision-makers these days are just actually incompetent:
Large corporations repeatedly amputate themselves to save weight only to go surprised pikachu when that causes them to fall flat on their face, small business owners will vehemently oppose building bike paths outside their stores because that would remove 2 parking spaces (yeah sure dude 2 parking spaces is totally enough to sustain your business, that has no relation to why it’s currently careening toward bancrupcy), and governments will unironically use the logic of “well we can’t build a bridge here, not enough people are swimming across the river to justify it!”.
It’s cos they’re privately owned and so don’t necessarily have to be shit, where publicly owned companies are legally required to maximize profits for shareholders.
Just to add to this, Valve is a company with a very peculiar organization, in which the structure is very horizontal and that does its own thing (the structure is not without problems, but it’s still very interesting). They also have a surprisingly little amount of employees for such a company! Numbers vary between 350 and 1000!
I got the iFixit pro tool kit a few years ago and I use it all the time even for stuff that’s not electronic lol
I won’t lie I was super tempted to add a pro toolkit with the part order, but talked myself out of it and ended up with just a spludger and moray driver kit lol.
I won’t lie I was super tempted to add a pro toolkit
I say do it (if you have the money, of course). I got it and while it has far more tools/bits than I use regularly, it’s been invaluable.
I have to second the other person said, if you have the money I’d get the the kit. It’s proved useful for all sorts of things. I’ve used mine for electronics, knife repair/maintenance, home repairs, basically anything you’ve ever needed to work on that required some kind of weird screwdriver that you definitely don’t have in the drawer lol
I feel the same way about my Leatherman Wave multi tool. I had a cheap one that I got for like £4 and it just sat in my toolbox. My house got broken into and they stole all my tools. The insurance company replaced the multi tool with the Wave. I just shoved it in the toolbox, which lives in the garage as I never really used it.
One day, I saw the Wave online and noticed it costs a lot of money (£100+).
I brought it inside the house and ended up leaving it by my desk. I found myself reaching for it to do all manner of household jobs. It’s a great gadget to quickly fix odd jobs or cut boxes up from the numerous online purchases. Really handy to leave around the house.
I’m sure you can get by with cheaper variants but the Leatherman tools are solid and built to last. They also come with a 25 year warranty. Definitely a purchase I’d make again if I ever needed to.
You make me want to buy a Steam Deck, even though I don’t play games much.
Yes, if you intend to buy some, let’s buy from the companies which have some values and respect their customers so they are successful and more companies may get inspired, instead of from the other ones. See also Patagonia and Fairphone for other rare examples.
Should see if somebody modelled something similar to print on 3D printer. Could make it glow in the dark, or wood infused filament.
I like showing my repairs a bit, make them stand out slightly, makes me love my devices more knowing they’ve been repaired.
I love how repairable and modifiable the deck is as well! I swapped my sticks for hall effect sticks a while back. Was super easy to do.
If you’d like to game while waiting for your replacement part, you can link a Bluetooth controller to your deck or use the usb c port to give yourself some USB ports for a keyboard and mouse.
Hall sticks are on my list to do eventually, that’s a great point the general upgradeability is awesome too. Appreciate the Bluetooth idea but I chose to leave the deck disassembled until the trigger comes in. The back screws inserts are molded plastic so the less times screws are removed & reinserted the better.
