this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2023
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In case you're out of the loop, the old Steam Deck had Philips screws that screwed into self-tapping plastic holes. This lead to occasional stripped threads and often stripped screwheads.

Valve absolutely did not have to change their screws, and its probably actually against their best interests. While other companies around the world are constantly in search of new ways to screw their own consumers, Valve goes out of their way to update their screws to make them easier to install/remove by changing to torx screws and added metal threads in the backplate. Those who know anything about mechanical engineering know this is not an insignificant amount of effort they put into it.

This is a small change that makes a huge impact, and speaks volumes about the ethos of the company. It says:

  1. We want to make our devices last longer, and be easier to repair.

  2. If you want to buy the cheaper tier and save yourself a few bucks by installing whatever SSD you want, go right ahead.

  3. We trust you to make decisions for yourself.

  4. Most importantly, we respect you, the consumer, and want you to fully own and control the devices we sell.

Valve is by no means perfect, and there's plenty more they could be doing, but they've earned my respect and my patronage and I won't buy games from anywhere else. I will buy whatever future products they sell, even if I don't think I'll use them regularly.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago (4 children)

I just don't use my impact drill on them and I've never had an issue.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago

But how do you know if the screws are tight when you're not counting ugga duggas?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago (14 children)

I think Valve in on very early steps of enshittification. Maybe not everyone, but most companies started like that. I mean being nice to users. Counterargument to my claim is that they are already millionaires, which is true, but humans' greed may be limitless.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago (2 children)

If valve were public, and required to make a lot more money than the previous quarter, they would absolutely need (want?) to get the maximum amount of money from wherever they could. It's what I think it's happening with netflix & others. It doesn't matter that (hypotetically) they make a billion dolars of revenue. They need to make more next quarter. So they need to raise prices, forbid account sharing, reduce content quarity, anything to earn as much money as possible for next quarter.

Volvo could earn a billion dollars, and if they don't want to earn more, they could happily stay the same. They might even want to make moves thinking on the long term, such as keep customers happy and excited, or invest in new technologies like proton. Compared to netflix execs, who don't care about the long term, they care about next quarter.

I don't know a lot about the stock market, but it looks stupid to me to bet on infinite growth. If the company earns money, and I own shares, shouldn't I earn money via dividends? It looks to me like the only way to make money is to buy low and sell high? Or is that just greed?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

I don't think it will happen. Enshittification has a predictable life cycle. Valve has had years of opportunity to sell out, but haven't.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago

Turns out i'm gonna buy a steamdeck with them using linux and thinking of things like this.

I just need to wait a bit as the most expensive season is around the corner, i'm just glad our Dutch black friday doesn't outdo any regular discount making it a near necessity to wait for black friday.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago

Made by hardware hackers for hardware hackers.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (7 children)

Are people continually opening their steam decks? I am confused at the opportunity to have stripped screws and dethreaded holes.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Three thoughts:

  • Valve doesn’t use physical media, so there isn’t a need to enforce DRM at the hardware level
  • the Deck itself is sold at a small profit regardless of the configuration, so there’s no benefit to pushing users to higher-price configurations
  • Valve enforces its DRM in software via the OS

The biggest reasons to lock down hardware aren’t really there on the Deck. On top of that, it benefits Valve to have other devices running their storefront, so using off-the-shelf parts when possible makes it easier for others to use the Deck as a template.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

I really have no idea what this comment is supposed to be about. Do you think companies like Apple don't make buckets of money from their app store? Or their subscription services? Do you think they "need" to charge exorbitant prices for their hardware? Do you think they "need" to strike partnerships with their suppliers to ensure they can't sell their parts to anyone else? Do you think they "need" to lock them down so that even if you're able to obtain third party parts, they still won't work?

Corporations don't care about "needs". Their goals are to extract as much money from the consumer as humanly possible.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

People ITT: it's called ranting and raving!

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