Despite the significant price increase, the Steam Deck is already sold out in certain regions

Hm. For Europe it seems the 512GB version is gone too...

The only good I can see coming from this (and I'm grasping at straws here) is that once we see demand for AI slow down (hopefully), the used hardware market will be absolutely swamped.

Is this love?

So I guess the price increase was't a problem for some people...

Quoting: ItsRainingSomewhereSo I guess the price increase was't a problem for some people...

Probably the same people not worried about oil or food prices either. Some of them will collect premium items like an overpriced Steam Deck just to have it sit on their shelf of handhelds.

Last edited by melkemind on 28 May 2026 at 4:05 pm UTC

Quoting: ottergauzeThe only good I can see coming from this (and I'm grasping at straws here) is that once we see demand for AI slow down (hopefully), the used hardware market will be absolutely swamped.

I wish I shared your optimism.

I think what is more realistic is that data center demand reaches a homeostasis and plateaus.

Quoting: ottergauzeThe only good I can see coming from this (and I'm grasping at straws here) is that once we see demand for AI slow down (hopefully), the used hardware market will be absolutely swamped.

I dunno. I start to think that when the AI bubble explode, there won't be any gaming pc arounds anymore, all the hardware will be in server farms. So... they will start to sell people cloud gaming to recover from losess. With no material alternatives. Since OEM will be gone too.

It might push Valve to accelerate the transition to arm based gaming hardware. Snapdragon cpus don't seem to be affected by the rampocalypse.

Quoting: Mal

Quoting: ottergauzeThe only good I can see coming from this (and I'm grasping at straws here) is that once we see demand for AI slow down (hopefully), the used hardware market will be absolutely swamped.

I dunno. I start to think that when the AI bubble explode, there won't be any gaming pc arounds anymore, all the hardware will be in server farms. So... they will start to sell people cloud gaming to recover from losess. With no material alternatives. Since OEM will be gone too.

That only works if there is effective demand--if people are both willing and able to pay for these services. When the AI bubble goes it won't go alone; there will be a multi-faceted financial crisis leading to a serious recession in all parts of the world that have renounced Keynesian economics, i.e. most places outside China. So, people won't be flocking to such services, nobody will have the money.

The question on my mind is: did they sell a lot, or did they just make another batch of 15 units, like with the Steam Controller 2.

Both SKUs still available in the UK as of this post, though I shouldn’t be surprised the US stock sold out given how much more trigger happy with their credit cards they are than even we can justify. And we’re pretty bad with that too.

There are people out there willing to part with this kind of money for trainers, Lego and small bits of card with the dumb electric rodents from their childhood on them. And apparently enough of them that the rest of us don’t matter any more. I’m starting to come to terms with finding entertainment where I can get it usually secondhand old stuff (which I honestly get more enjoyment from anywho)

And now, both variants are in stock again in the EU. Weird.

Got to be the scalpers.

Quoting: Mal

Quoting: ottergauzeThe only good I can see coming from this (and I'm grasping at straws here) is that once we see demand for AI slow down (hopefully), the used hardware market will be absolutely swamped.

I dunno. I start to think that when the AI bubble explode, there won't be any gaming pc arounds anymore, all the hardware will be in server farms. So... they will start to sell people cloud gaming to recover from losess. With no material alternatives. Since OEM will be gone too.

A bigger counterpoint to this is that the hardware used in servers and AI training hardly works as well when it comes to tasks like gaming, it might not even be the same form factor. Regardless, let's not be such doomers about the situation, it doesn't help anybody.

Quoting: tfkHm. For Europe it seems the 512GB version is gone too...

Not in my Europe.

It varies, probably not for long if they stocked 4.5 units.

China isn't building Data Centers to the magnitude that the west is, because they know Data Centers are a scam & failed model.

AI Investors are going to be pissed when they don't get a ROI, and the funny part is that the intellectual property rights will be sold off for pennies on the dollar during bankrupcy from these AI companies, probably to BlackRock, BlackStone and other Mega Entities.

This is literally what happened when The Oil Companies bought Electric & Solar IP & Patent rights. What's important is that the money only flows to the "right people".

Of course the prices will never come back down.

And to all you anti-war copium hopium optimists, don't for a second think that Oil Prices will return to their prior Iran conflict prices -- the oil wells when not pumped consistently, have had flow permanently reduced by 30%, without expensive investment into further deeper drilling & expansion. Meaning that global shipping and production of goods will not come down in price, leaving scarcity up.

We haven't even talked about what incredible hardware the Steam Deck is, it's a low watt powerful portable x86_64 computer not locked in with many weird binary blobs, with a poweruful open source (driver wise) GPU. This technology has many uses (drones) that even at 1k would be a steal to the right buyer.

And in the blink of an eye, just like RAM, GPU, NVME - prices multiply 100%+.

This is going to last at least as long as it takes for new fabrication facilities to be built (4 years). If you didn't get your hardware before, it sucks, but it's going to stay bad and even get worse.

Even at equal or higher prices, with other Valve Products going OOS in a day, Steam Machines will completely sell out.

It's a sellers market.

If you haven't locked in your 5 year rig, you'll be even more cooked until supply catches up -- which requires the new fabs to be outputting in volume.

I think this out-of-stock situation is temporary. Eventually those Steam Decks will collect dust on Valve's shelves. The PS5 Pro is now cheaper than the Steam Deck OLED 512, while the slim PS5 and the Switch 2 are about 35% cheaper. There is no way Valve will continue selling large amounts at these prices.

Quoting: ElectricPrismAnd to all you anti-war copium hopium optimists, don't for a second think that Oil Prices will return to their prior Iran conflict prices -- the oil wells when not pumped consistently, have had flow permanently reduced by 30%, without expensive investment into further deeper drilling & expansion. Meaning that global shipping and production of goods will not come down in price, leaving scarcity up.

There is some truth to that, but not all oil wells are that vulnerable to this phenomenon; the overall loss will surely be significantly less than 30% of the whole region's production. Getting into territory where that can be replaced. The other issue is that while yes, all the disruption will certainly keep prices high for a year or two after the strait is open, demand will start to decrease soon. The transition is accelerating; until now it has just reduced the increase in demand, or this past year maybe canceled it out. But country after country is deciding that the economics are compelling and, now, the national security issues even more so. Everyone's gonna be buying Chinese electric cars, buses, trucks. This is the last oil price boom. Once demand starts noticeably declining, prices will go down and never really recover. Even if a supply cut postpones that by a year or two, the end game is still coming.

Quoting: sarmadThe PS5 Pro is now cheaper than the Steam Deck OLED 512.

PS5 Pro 899€, not cheapest and not most expensive listing (for my local) and PSN getting closer and closer to be mandatory. SD OLED 512G - 779€, 1T - 919€. Comparison of very different form factors kinda... Steam Machine will be comparable.

Quoting: ItsRainingSomewhereSo I guess the price increase was't a problem for some people...

Well, money just isn't an issue for some people. It's not a matter of being rich, just depends on lifestyle. My mother died months ago, so I live by myself now. Since I require few things, I can afford to splurge on the occasional "treat" like my recent PS5 purchase every so often. However, that's just me; different people have different situations.