cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/8624517
It is perhaps not surprising that the price of the Steam Deck has gone up, given the state of everything, but even so, just how far it's jumped is straight-up shocking. The 512GB OLED model has gone from $549 to $789, and the 1TB unit has leapt from $649 to $949, an increase of nearly 50%.
So you can enjoy the same gut-punch sticker shock I felt, this is what it looks like in my home country of Canada, where a 1TB Steam Deck now costs $1,349 plus applicable sales taxes—so, in my province, that sucker is going to ring up to well over $1,500. To which I say, what the hell?
And look, it's true. Memory, SSDs, and GPUs have all skyrocketed in price, largely due to the increasingly desperate pursuit of AI, and the expectation is that as bad as things are, it's going to get worse.
In a similar vein, "global logistical challenges" points us primarily toward the war launched by the US against Iran and the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has utterly screwed everything and similarly shows no movement toward a satisfactory resolution and will almost certainly get worse.
Regardless of the reasons, though, it's a hell of a jump, and I imagine an awful lot of people who were gearing up to buy a Steam Deck are now postponing those places. It also bodes poorly for the upcoming Steam Machine, the SteamOS-powered gaming PC announced in 2025. In March, Valve recommitted to launching sometime in 2026, but a date and pricing still haven't been announced—and given the importance of putting it out at a palatable price, I will not be at all surprised if Valve decides to roll the dice on everything sucking less in 2027.
The good news, as far as it goes, is that Steam Decks are now back in stock, so you can buy one—if you've got a Scrooge McDuck-sized pile of cash lying around, that is.
