Steam Deck gets a major price bump, more than 40% increase for US buyers

Taleweaver · May 28, 2026

My main question here is 'how does it compare to the competition now?'. The deck created a market for portable pc gamers (or rather: brought it out of the niche), with copycats that had better specs for more money.
No upgrades now isn't just sad news but could make it irrelevant, especially if the competition is steamos/bazzite compatible.

The ram prices are high, but what if it's not just ai? RAM manufacturers have in the past used their market power to create a cartel to jack up prices. They got sued then, but with current geopolitics I'd rather see the us government take bribes and keep the money high rather than doing what's best for the consumers.

Edit: but to circle back to the topic... I've got mine. Have two that see regular use. Non oled, but I'm not pushing for high end games. I'm on the fence for the deck on that one.
The sad part is that I think valve's vision for pc gaming will be buried with current prices.

DiscostewSM · May 28, 2026

Xzi said:
Nintendo's strategy is smart in the short term, but might cause more backlash in the long term. Reports suggest this won't be the final price increase for the Switch 2.

Given how much bigger and more frequent the price hikes are with everything else, I dunno if there will be much backlash for Nintendo in the long term. People are certainly not happy about having any increases, but they will learn that is just how it is these days, and understand Nintendo is doing everything they can to deal with it. Should there be more increases for Switch 2, chances are, everything else will have undergone more increases.

Sonic Angel Knight · May 28, 2026

Xzi said:
Different demands from different groups of gamers. Personally I think PS4-era graphics were as good as they need to be, and the focus from there on out should've been performance/optimization instead. Unfortunately the people who want total photo-realism are still very vocal, and console makers still feel the need to cater heavily to them.

I hope people total realism has expenses. The obvious time+money being huge. But also possible trade off of graphics vs performance. Then my most disdained is the file size of the games which we are expected to deal with by buying more storage since the disc (or nintendo key cards) don't load from them and "MUST" install from disc to even play the games. Maybe installed data means faster load times, but it's not an excuse for lacking efficient data compression or optimizations in games to begin with.

The Catboy · May 28, 2026

anhminh said:
If the bubble pop, the economy will go into depression and gaming will be the last thing you will need to worry about.

Bruh, we are already there. The current economy is literally just the same companies keeping each other afloat. We can’t pretend this economy is healthy or not already in the toilet. Equally, gaming isn’t even on my list of priorities these days. I am dealing with the Trump administration attacking my job as a mental health professional and insurance companies taking advantage of his bullshit. Gaming at this point is a rare luxury that I get in between stressors.

Xzi · May 28, 2026

DiscostewSM said:
Given how much bigger and more frequent the price hikes are with everything else, I dunno if there will be much backlash for Nintendo in the long term. People are certainly not happy about having any increases, but they will learn that is just how it is these days, and understand Nintendo is doing everything they can to deal with it. Should there be more increases for Switch 2, chances are, everything else will have undergone more increases.

Eh I think this is Valve front-loading the one big price hike necessary to ensure sustainability for the years to come, whereas Nintendo will end up being more reactive as component prices fluctuate. Then again, Nintendo also likely has a much more robust manufacturing pipeline than Valve, given how long they've been making hardware and how many hundreds of millions of consoles they've moved.

titan_tim · May 28, 2026

ChibiMofo said:
If you own a Switch 1 with hundreds of previously purchased games it does. And the Steam Deck doesn't come with any games that you didn't purchase through Valve. What a weird comparison.

That's assuming the person has a switch 1. Also, never met someone who has hundreds of switch 1 games. A few, but not literal hundreds (Shit, just checked my steam list and I'm up to 1,200....yikes...).

I think with the steam deck, there are ways to get Epic games running on it, but it's not simple.

But no need to be a contrarian on this topic. I'm not saying one is better than the other. Just easier to get off to a running start with libraries.

ChronosNotashi · May 28, 2026

Xzi said:
Eh I think this is Valve front-loading the one big price hike necessary to ensure sustainability for the years to come

I don't see how the sustainability argument will hold, given that Valve discontinued the value/budget option long before the price hike. Not to mention that this throws the currently-unconfirmed price of the Steam Frame and Steam Machine even more into question.

Think about it: if the Steam Deck OLED, a handheld gaming PC, is USD $240/$300 more expensive than it was before, one can only imagine how expensive Valve's future hardware offerings will be.

realtimesave · May 28, 2026

The attachment rate for this system is already abysmal, why raise the price to where even less people will want it. lol. I actually should sell mine.

ChronosNotashi · May 28, 2026

titan_tim said:
I think with the steam deck, there are ways to get Epic games running on it, but it's not simple.

I ain't touching that garbage fire of an approach with a 10-foot poll.

DiscostewSM · May 28, 2026

Xzi said:
Eh I think this is Valve front-loading the one big price hike necessary to ensure sustainability for the years to come, whereas Nintendo will end up being more reactive as component prices fluctuate. Then again, Nintendo also likely has a much more robust manufacturing pipeline than Valve, given how long they've been making hardware and how many hundreds of millions of consoles they've moved.

Nintendo, like the other console makers, buy components in bulk, have contacts they've been with for decades for better deals, etc, all to keep costs low. And, I would not be surprised if they are using part of the revenue of their own games to hold off the higher price hikes, since they are very well off financially with having practically no debt and loads of cash reserves. Valve just doesn't have that setup, nor do they make many games anymore. They are more of a storefront for the selling of 3rd-party games. That's where their revenue comes from. Royalties more or less.

Xzi · May 28, 2026

ChronosNotashi said:
I don't see how the sustainability argument will hold, given that Valve discontinued the value/budget option long before the price hike. Not to mention that this throws the currently-unconfirmed price of the Steam Frame and Steam Machine even more into question.

Think about it: if the Steam Deck OLED, a handheld gaming PC, is USD $240/$300 more expensive than it was before, one can only imagine how expensive Valve's future hardware offerings will be.

I mean sustainability in terms of profit margin, not total sales. Gaming hardware sales across the board are gonna be in for a very rough few years I'm thinking, people will just settle for what they have already. At this rate, even 2028 is gonna feel much too early to launch next gen systems for Sony and Microsoft. A $1,200 price tag would make them DOA.

Tigran · May 28, 2026

Maybe it's time for devs to go back to "What can we do with what we have." instead of "MAOR POWAH!!!"

Remember.. many Iconic characters wouldn't look like they do if it wasn't for the limitations of the times.

titan_tim · May 28, 2026

Jayro said:
Especially now that the hardware is old with much better systems for the same price, I'd rather just puck up an ROG Ally instead.

I had an Ayaneo Geek 1S, and it was a hassle. If I took the time to put Bazzite on it, I'm sure it would have been a better machine, but I sold it off.

But Steam seems to do well with optimizing the games for their specific hardware that other's can't replicate as easily. Whenever there are benchmarks, the deck can run at either higher framerates at the same TDP or the same framerate at lower.

The community is also really important. Both the deck and the ROG seem to have a huge community that fixes bugs. Ayaneo had basically nothing in comparison.

Post automatically merged: May 28, 2026

Tigran said:
Maybe it's time for devs to go back to "What can we do with what we have." instead of "MAOR POWAH!!!"

Remember.. many Iconic characters wouldn't look like they do if it wasn't for the limitations of the times.

Reminds me of this meme:

realtimesave · May 28, 2026

blame AI for price hikes on everything electronic that uses microchips. personally, I hate AI. And I have worked on AI machines in server rooms. Big pieces of expensive shit. Money that could have been spent better on something else.

DiscostewSM · May 28, 2026

I honestly hope this isn't a bad omen. Like, if Steam starts.... to charge for online....

Xzi · May 28, 2026

DiscostewSM said:
I honestly hope this isn't a bad omen. Like, if Steam starts.... to charge for online....

We very well might be in for a gaming crash where AAA developers are concerned, but Steam enshittifying would be a gaming apocalypse. If anything that drastic was gonna happen, it wouldn't be until after GabeN dies, the company goes public, or both.

realtimesave · May 28, 2026

Xzi said:
We very well might be in for a gaming crash where AAA developers are concerned, but Steam enshittifying would be a gaming apocalypse. If anything that drastic was gonna happen, it wouldn't be until after GabeN dies, the company goes public, or both.

GabeN doesn't appear to be the healthiest of nerds tbh...

Xzi · May 28, 2026

realtimesave said:
GabeN doesn't appear to be the healthiest of nerds tbh...

I don't know if you've seen more recent pictures, but he's lost quite a bit of weight. Plus he's a billionaire with access to the best possible healthcare. I think he's almost entirely hands-off with Valve at this point anyway, their relatively flat management structure is a huge boon to employee happiness and retention.

Tigran · May 28, 2026

realtimesave said:
blame AI for price hikes on everything electronic that uses microchips. personally, I hate AI. And I have worked on AI machines in server rooms. Big pieces of expensive shit. Money that could have been spent better on something else.

Will you hold that Position now that Kojima is using AI to make a Commercial.. I mean Movie?

RedBlueGreen · May 28, 2026

Noctosphere said:
Wow, all that bashing... Gabe always did what's best for gamers, and now, because he made one move that's disappointing, you all start bashing Gabe and the Steam Deck. That's the typical behaviour of toxic customers.

We don't owe anything to Valve. The multibillion dollar company can get along just fine without you defending them. You're a dollar sign to them.

People aren't toxic customers because they're understandably upset over a price increase on an old piece of hardware that's basically outdated at this point.

retrospect said:
Oof. Good ergonomics but that's about it. I'd be looking elsewhere. Isn't the chip 5 years old too?

You expect the manufacturer to cut prices as the technology gets older and cheaper? /s

I mean, you're not wrong but we're past the point where that happens.

I can't say I'll feel bad if sales go down. Especially considering it's Valve and they pretty much have a monopoly on PC gaming and can afford to take a loss on hardware.

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