Steam Deck stock returns but there's a big price increase

From being the most affordable to the "only for hardcore hobbyists" niche 🫤

Quoting: MasterSleortYou can't write an article and expect people can remember the prices before they went out of stock. Nowhere is the price increase mentioned. Only the new prices are listed. I bought both my LCD and OLED Steam Decks at launch and never cared to look at the prices again, so I can't remember what they cost. I am 99% sure a AI model would have known to mention this.

Yeah I am annoyed, because it is subpar journalism.

What are you on about? The article you are commenting on has the original prices right there and has since I hit publish.

Awesome, GenerativeAI killed Steam Hardware. With the new pricing, the $599 ROG XBox Ally looks like a much bang for the buck alternative (until it also raises the price, that I suspect they'll have to do).

So uh, it's still jumped up to the number 1 global top seller with the price increase... https://store.steampowered.com/charts/topselling/global

The big picture is far worse than expensive Valve devices. Unless we get an end to the war in Iran soon and some sort of relief to RAM/SSD prices, we are witnessing the beginning of the end to affordable consumer computing. Princes will continue to increase on computing devices and big companies will probably try directing the market towards cheaper game cloud streaming, and AI devices that have little to no local computing capabilities. This will begin in earnest when global oil reserves reaches critical levels after the summer.

The problem is that the market was already experiencing considerable stress due to underrepresented AI demand and unpredictable tariffs by the US government. Now add an energy and logistics crisis on top of that and we have perfect conditions for a PC collapse at best and a full on recession at worst.

Quoting: hardpenguinFrom being the most affordable to the "only for hardcore hobbyists" niche 🫤

Not sure if true, but i read that there is a new current economic model where it's cheaper to sell fewer items at a higher price than many items at a budget price , when you factor in the costs of manufacturing (parts , energy costs , shipping, taxes etc..). And that this model is directly targeting high income households and forgoing the broad base of lower income households.

There are currently around 32 million households in the US (for example) considered 'high income' (albeit that number is falling rapidly no doubt). If you don't typically expect to exceed that target for your customer base it might be seen as a more logical choice for some companies to go that route.

not an economist, just something i read.

Before it was cryptomining, now it's AI... there will always be the next new hype causing increasing prices -.-

Quoting: Liam Squires-HandSo uh, it's still jumped up to the number 1 global top seller with the price increase... https://store.steampowered.com/charts/topselling/global

Maybe it's because of the price increase. 😇

Quoting: MasterSleortYou can't write an article and expect people can remember the prices before they went out of stock. Nowhere is the price increase mentioned. Only the new prices are listed. I bought both my LCD and OLED Steam Decks at launch and never cared to look at the prices again, so I can't remember what they cost. I am 99% sure a AI model would have known to mention this.

Yeah I am annoyed, because it is subpar journalism.

I think you should take a nap.
You are clearly not at the peak of your perception right now.

Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 28 May 2026 at 10:03 am UTC

Quoting: Liam Squires-Hand

Quoting: MasterSleortYou can't write an article and expect people can remember the prices before they went out of stock. Nowhere is the price increase mentioned. Only the new prices are listed. I bought both my LCD and OLED Steam Decks at launch and never cared to look at the prices again, so I can't remember what they cost. I am 99% sure a AI model would have known to mention this.

Yeah I am annoyed, because it is subpar journalism.

What are you on about? The article you are commenting on has the original prices right there and has since I hit publish.

I am sorry. I think it is the way it is written. The new prices' currencies are written in their abbreviations whereas the old prices' currencies are listed with their respective currency symbols. In my mind I mistakenly read that as the region and then never read "originally", but just saw the number next to each currency symbol. Pardon me for thinking that is a bit confusing.
I will admit that I also didn't understand why others hadn't pointed it out, so I assumed they just knew the previous prices as almost common knowledge.
Still think its bad formatting though.

Quoting: Phlebiac

Quoting: MasterSleortYou can't write an article and expect people can remember the prices before they went out of stock. Nowhere is the price increase mentioned. Only the new prices are listed.

Are you complaining about the Valve post? Because Liam's article lists the original prices (unless he added those after the fact?).

No, I think it is primarily my fault for misreading each listed price. I read the currency as a region and then the "original" price as the current price as it had the currency symbol.
Example:

EUR 779 (originally €569)

My goodness!

Somehow was expected but... that's too much.

That is disappointing.

Quoting: BrokattThe big picture is far worse than expensive Valve devices. Unless we get an end to the war in Iran soon and some sort of relief to RAM/SSD prices, we are witnessing the beginning of the end to affordable consumer computing. Princes will continue to increase on computing devices and big companies will probably try directing the market towards cheaper game cloud streaming, and AI devices that have little to no local computing capabilities. This will begin in earnest when global oil reserves reaches critical levels after the summer.

The problem is that the market was already experiencing considerable stress due to underrepresented AI demand and unpredictable tariffs by the US government. Now add an energy and logistics crisis on top of that and we have perfect conditions for a PC collapse at best and a full on recession at worst.

IMHO this is the intended GOAL, not a side effect. Everything has been moving to subscription based because that generates the most profit. Why wouldn't they want H(ardware)aaS or G(aming)aaS? You don't even need some cabal managing a conspiracy to do this, it is literally what everyone is simply doing because they follow the profit.

I am excited for the upcoming Gamer's Nexus video where they talk to companies that sell non-RAM/SSD stuff (like cases, PSU, etc) that are being hammered as well even though those things are actually cheaper today. Even with mostly cheaper components though, the extra $500-1000 for the RAM/SSD/GPU are making people put off building a new PC. Gamer's Nexus mentioned that they fully expect some of the smaller companies to go bankrupt because of all this.

As for the oil, at least in the US, depending on draw down rates from the SPR and industrial buffers, there shoulnd't be any abrupt shocks for 4-12 months. I suspect we will see prices creep higher and higher instead of some discontinuity in pricing. I understand that Asia is getting hit a lot harder and that is rebalancing the global oil prices. Still, this isn't good news by any means and the longer the Hormuz madness continues the worse things will get. I just don't think it will be as fast as some people think.

I mean we all knew this was coming, but I was NOT expecting it to go this high. Unfortunately I use my deck for kind of side-play like in bed, or while traveling. So it was an impulse purchase just for fun at the old pricing and that was okay. But with this new pricing, there's no chance I'd do that again, so .............. I guess the SD1 is the only handheld I'll be having at all. I'm not paying 1000+ for a handheld, zero chance. This sucks :(

Quoting: eggroleI am excited for the upcoming Gamer's Nexus video where they talk to companies that sell non-RAM/SSD stuff (like cases, PSU, etc) that are being hammered as well even though those things are actually cheaper today.

That [video is already released](https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=zyQwAhppWj8).

Quoting: Mohandevir

Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: Mountain Man

Quoting: MohandevirEdit: I'm curious to know why the price hike is even steeper for canadian customers... Saw a similar phenomenon with the Steam Controller.

Ask your prime minister. He's been making lots of questionable decisions that are impacting the Canadian economy.

As a lefty, I think he's been making some questionable decisions, but I'd be fascinated to know what you think are his questionable decisions.

Not sure it's the right place for political debate. This said I think our Prime Minister is doing what he can with what he has been given, considering the context. Not sure what he should do. Bending the knee to... Would have disatrous consequences.

I suppose it isn't but I can't resist just a bit.
Oh, agreed. I think Carney's performance on the international stage has been very good--his statements, his trade deals, his measured pushback against US aggression, and so on. There have been a couple of events where I could have wished he'd go harder on putting those statements into practice, such as opposing the attack on Iran and doing a bit more for Cuba, but overall very good. I'm not so happy about his domestic agenda, which includes gutting pesticide regulations, cutting health care, trying to replace the civil service with AI, boosting worse-than-worthless pipelines either for their own sake or to appease a blackmailing premier of Alberta, a supposed "sovereign wealth fund" which is instead a pool of money for subsidizing corporations, and an increasingly general push to replace formal assessment processes with "the prime minister decided he wants that so we don't care about the details". At this point it's not just one "Henry VIII" law but a whole sequence of them, some having nothing to do with urgent projects.

Note that contrary to Mountain Man's opinion, none of this domestic agenda has yet had much impact on the Canadian economy, which is doing fairly well considering the world environment, while the Canadian dollar has been pretty steady against the US dollar since before Carney came into office. So changes in the relative price of Steam Decks in CAD vs USD can't really have much to do with Carney. Leaders of countries rarely have very large short term impacts on the economy of their country unless they do weird things like start charging lots of random tariffs or start wars that result in major fuel supply shortages or terrorize significant portions of the workforce to the point where they stop working.

Quoting: Purple Library GuyLeaders of countries rarely have very large short term impacts on the economy of their country unless they do weird things like start charging lots of random tariffs or start wars that result in major fuel supply shortages or terrorize significant portions of the workforce to the point where they stop working.

Come on, nobody would do anything like that 😆

Quoting: Purple Library GuyI'm not so happy about his domestic agenda, which includes gutting pesticide regulations, cutting health care, trying to replace the civil service with AI, boosting worse-than-worthless pipelines either for their own sake or to appease a blackmailing premier of Alberta, a supposed "sovereign wealth fund" which is instead a pool of money for subsidizing corporations, and an increasingly general push to replace formal assessment processes with "the prime minister decided he wants that so we don't care about the details".

You forgot him tabling one of the most atrocious mass-surveillance laws in any Western country.

Quoting: Kimyrielle

Quoting: Purple Library GuyI'm not so happy about his domestic agenda, which includes gutting pesticide regulations, cutting health care, trying to replace the civil service with AI, boosting worse-than-worthless pipelines either for their own sake or to appease a blackmailing premier of Alberta, a supposed "sovereign wealth fund" which is instead a pool of money for subsidizing corporations, and an increasingly general push to replace formal assessment processes with "the prime minister decided he wants that so we don't care about the details".

You forgot him tabling one of the most atrocious mass-surveillance laws in any Western country.

I did forget that, yes. Quite true.