Valve has finally announced that Steam Deck repair centers are now available, providing relief for owners concerned about what will happen if their Steam Deck breaks after the warranty expires. If you’ve got a broken Steam Deck or one with faulty buttons or thumbsticks and don’t want to risk trying to fix it yourself, you can now contact Steam support who will then give instructions on how to ship the console to one of its repair centers.
Are the Steam Deck repair centers free of charge?
We’re happy to announce that our Steam Deck repair centers are now open! If a Steam Deck has an issue and needs to be sent in, repairs covered by warranty will be performed free of charge. If not covered by warranty, you can opt to have your device repaired for a fee. pic.twitter.com/VXGdczeOvX
— Steam Deck (@OnDeck) September 9, 2022
So long as your Steam Deck is still under the standard one-year warranty after purchase, you will not be charged for the repair through these centers. The team will diagnose the problem, test and calibrate the unit, and then send it back in a hopefully timely manner.
However, if the cause of your Steam Deck breaking is not covered by the warranty — Valve humorously provides an example of a dog gnawing on the console’s thumbstick – then you can have it serviced at the repair center for a fee. The center will send the client a quote for the repair bill, and at that point the client can accept the charge or choose to have Steam send the console back. It’s unclear how much this fee will be, particularly if it will be a flat rate, but it will likely depend on the extent of the damage and the cost for replacement parts. It’s also unknown where these centers are located, but hopefully they are available around the world.
In addition, several users discussing the news on the Steam forums have asked whether the repair centers will cover battery replacements, particularly in the future if the battery’s health is poor. A designer from Valve named Lawrence has responded stating that the repair center will indeed handle battery replacements.
Before this, the only option for repairing the Steam Deck outside of warranty was to repair it yourself, with Steam recommending that you use the guides, repair kits, and replacement parts available at iFixit.
In other news, a wealth of Splatoon 3 merchandise is still available in the Nintendo Store but will likely be sold quickly, and the Stalker 2 delay is looking likely after Xbox has canceled pre-orders of the game.
