It’s a good news/bad news situation. If you’ve been patiently waiting, Valve has announced that the Steam Deck is back in stock. Yay! But the company is now raising the price of the Steam Deck by up to $300. Boo!
As PCMag reports, on Wednesday, Valve announced that these ugly pricing updates are due to the rising cost of memory and “global logistical” issues. The Steam Deck OLED 512GB now costs $789, up from $549. The Steam Deck OLED 1TB model is $949, an increase from $649.
Valve noted: “Steam Deck itself hasn’t changed; 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 logistical challenges suggest the US-Iran conflict, which has led to rising oil prices, may have played a role in the price hike. Valve also cited “rising memory and storage costs” as a cause. The only positive sign is that Valve says it’ll fulfill orders within three to five business days; the gaming handheld has been largely out of stock since February.
A possible alternative to the shocking price increase is that gamers can also buy a refurbished Steam Deck to save on money. But the pricing has also gone up and is even higher than the original price tag for brand new units, according to Valve’s website.
The price increase also doesn’t bode well for Valve’s upcoming Steam Machine and Steam Frame. The company delayed the releases precisely because of the AI-driven memory shortage, which has been driving up component costs.
Of course, Valve isn’t alone in raising prices, as both console makers and other gaming handhelds like Lenovo’s have seen cost increases, too. But the memory shortage is so severe that there are fears it’ll discourage consumers from buying all kinds of consumer electronics, turning the products into high-end luxury goods. On Tuesday, research firm IDC warned that the smartphone market will likely suffer “the steepest annual contraction” in history due to both the memory crunch and rising prices from the US-Iran conflict.
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