Remember when the Steam Deck—no longer a bleeding-edge piece of hardware but still a marvel from an “it just works” perspective—was a bargain? Well, those days are painfully over. Today Valve announced that the 512 GB OLED Deck has leaped from $549 to $789, while the 1 TB version has positively soared from $649 to $949.
In other territories, that comes out to CAD 1,129, EUR 779, GBP 649, AUD 1,199, and PLN 3,279 for the 512 GB model and CAD 1,349, EUR 919, GBP 779, AUD 1,429, and PLN 3,879 for the big boy.
Nearly every platform under the sun has undergone a price increase at this point, but the Deck’s is especially (sticker) shocking. The top-end model’s price is now almost 50 percent higher than it used to be.
“Steam Deck itself hasn't changed,” wrote Valve. “These new prices reflect the current state of component costs and other global logistical challenges across the industry as a whole. We’ll keep you updated if anything changes.”
The Steam Deck, of course, is the same as it ever was. AI and a wholly unnecessary, historically embarrassing war are (once again) to blame for making the computer more expensive.
It seems unlikely that things are going to change for the better anytime soon. Valve recently released a sturdy, versatile new iteration of its Steam Controller, but the Steam Machines meant to accompany it remain MIA. When we’ll finally see them in the wild is anyone’s guess. After all, planning for the future becomes something of a fool’s errand in a world where the concept of consumer hardware might soon be a thing of the past.
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Chris Person
