Why would Valve stop stocking the most important replacement part just as people are starting to need it?
Here is Valve’s answer to The Verge, as of 5PM ET: “We just confirmed with iFixit that they plan to have batteries back in stock by next week.”
“iFixit will be getting the same OEM parts sourced through Valve’s partners that they always have,” spokesperson Kaci Aitchison Boyle tells me.
The Reddit story wasn’t necessarily false. Earlier today, iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens confirmed to The Verge that it had indeed heard that Valve would no longer make replacement batteries or screens for the original Steam Deck LCD.
But by afternoon, Valve and iFixit had already managed to change that. “They have hooked us up with a supplier, we’re working on it,” Wiens now tells me. And if Valve does decide to sunset the part in the future, iFixit says it’ll be ready to take up the torch by using an aftermarket supplier instead. “I want people to know we are going to find a way to get batteries for these things,” says Wiens.
Update: Valve says iFixit will keep selling Steam Deck batteries after all