When it comes to rare gaming hardware, engineering samples of popular consoles and their accessories can demand sky-high prices, especially when they slip onto the market. Recently, a prototype of the highly sought-after Steam Deck appeared on eBay and caught the eye of a keen-sighted user on Reddit’s Steam Deck community.
Imagine the excitement when this intriguing piece of gaming history surfaced on eBay, initially carrying a hefty price tag of $3,000. Though meant as a nod to Valve’s early development images, it finally clinched a deal at $2,000.
Dubbed “Engineering Sample 34,” this particular prototype introduces a distinct vibe compared to the standard model. With its striking blue highlights, sleek, curved design, and circular trackpads, it even sports an enigmatic sensor on the right joystick, stirring curiosity about its original purpose.
Curiously, the prototype was adorned with a “Not for resale” sticker on the back cover—a detail that didn’t deter its determined seller. Valve developed numerous prototypes to iron out the kinks in the Steam Deck’s design, and while pinpointing this model’s exact age is tricky, the use of an AMD APU with 2019’s Picasso silicon hints that it hails from the earlier stages of development, possibly around 2019 or 2020.
A little detail: this prototype is currently without SteamOS, which might have piqued curiosity even further. According to Notebookcheck, who delved into the BIOS images from the listing, Valve experimented with older setups featuring an AMD Picasso chip from the Ryzen 3000 mobile line. With up to four Zen+ cores and a Vega 3/8/11-based GPU, this configuration does reveal an exhaustive development process, though the final retail units have certainly moved leagues ahead in terms of performance.
Moreover, in comparison, this handheld sports 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD—quite modest against today’s Steam Deck configurations, which typically offer 16GB of RAM and up to a 512GB SSD, unless you consider the 64GB eMMC version. The more advanced Aerith and Sephiroth APUs would undoubtedly outperform this early setup.
Now, we play the waiting game to find out who the new owner is. If it turns out to be a reviewer or a hardware analyst, we might get an insightful dive into the intricacies of this unique Picasso chip and trace the Steam Deck’s evolution to its current form. On the other hand, it could quietly disappear into the hands of a private collector, adding mystery to its legacy.
For those on the edge of their seats for the next Steam Deck iteration, Valve has made it clear that we won’t see its successor until more powerful processors are available. Patience is a virtue in the world of gaming, after all.
