The Steam Deck Just Got Way Too Expensive

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]Not a big fan of this. Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, it has happened.

[00:00:05]Valve has raised the price of the Steam Deck considerably. I think everybody that's in the tech sphere, the gaming sphere, the handheld sphere, anything like that on YouTube is clamoring to their desk to make a video about this because it came suddenly and it is not the best news that we've ever heard.

[00:00:25]It's not great. I felt like I needed to make a video on this because I made an entire video about the Steam Deck and how I think it's the greatest tech gaming innovation in the last decade.

[00:00:37]And that still holds true. I still think the Steam Deck is an incredible device.

[00:00:41]Unfortunately, the news with the price increase is less than favorable. And I just got to say it outright, the Steam Deck at this price point it's just not worth it. This is a little different from my typical videos. I don't have a full-on presentation. It's just something I wanted to get in front of the camera and discuss. But let's start at the beginning. If you were unaware, the Steam Deck was out of stock for a considerable amount of time. In fact, those shortages started happening around the time that I made my Steam Deck video. So, in a way, this is all my fault. And I'm I'm here to say I'm sorry. That's my bad. That's my B. All right. It's been out of stock for a very long time and there were some contributing factors to that. Mainly, hardware shortages due to AI data centers popping up everywhere and kind of sucking in all of the RAM and the storage and everything. There's been a massive shortage on that and there's been massive price increases on hardware and those resources. So, naturally, things have been harder to find and when you can find them, they've been more expensive. So, anybody wanting to buy a Steam Deck was kind of in limbo because they weren't in stock. Steam wasn't really doing the refurb thing either.

[00:01:49]And so, the only way you could really get your hands on one was from a reseller or somebody on eBay or Facebook Marketplace. And those were typically scalpers and they came at a premium.

[00:02:00]Actually, I have a friend that has been wanting a Steam Deck for months and months and months, and today he got the news that they were back in stock, and then he was greeted with these prices. I have a short testament from him here that I will share now. His image has been blurred and his voice altered to, of course, remain anonymous.

[00:02:19]>> So, I guess I'm a recent victim of the Steam Deck price hike.

[00:02:24]I wanted a Steam Deck for a very long time, you know how that bit the [clears throat] thing. I signed up for a Steam Deck stock tracker notifications, and every day I patiently waited for the notification to come in that the Steam Deck was finally back in stock and I could pick one up.

[00:02:39]And when that moment finally came, it feels like it was just yesterday.

[00:02:46]Uh I was in my kitchen fixing lunch, and I cannot describe to you the happiness I felt at that moment. It was just pure [clears throat] bliss.

[00:02:57]And you know, looking back, I was just a stupid stupid, naive kid.

[00:03:05]But anyway, I ran to my computer, opened the Steam store, and that was when my world came crumbling down.

[00:03:13]It was just pure chaos.

[00:03:16]Price hikes of $200 Valve took my hopes and dreams and crushed them.

[00:03:28]I'm sorry, just just give me a minute.

[00:03:37]Yeah, [clears throat] my Steam Deck will be here next week.

[00:03:40]>> So, yeah, it's not a great scenario, and I think the reason that people are reacting so harshly to this is because it is a big price increase. This isn't, you know, a $10 increase or $20 increase. In fact, on both models, it's about a 40% increase. And that's not something you can just sneeze at. That is a lot of money. So, you can see on the screenshot here, the 512 GB OLED model now starts at $789 before tax. If you opt to get the 1 TB model that also includes this anti-glare screen, you're going to be spending $949 before tax. I said it at the beginning of the video, to me these prices they just ain't it, dog.

[00:04:27]That's [laughter] so so stupid. The draw of the Steam Deck and one of the reasons I thought it was so influential and so great was the price point. Valve put it at a very very reasonable price and they sold it at kind of a loss because they were going to make that money up by selling games through Steam. And because of those lower price points, it made the product very attractive and very much worth your money. I talked in my other video about the bang-to-buck ratio and the Steam Deck by far had the best bang-to-buck ratio. Steam Deck's never been a powerhouse. It's never had the greatest components. You know, a lot of its competitors have more powerful processors, better GPUs, more RAM, etc. etc. But, they always cost considerably more. So, what you get for your dollar, the Steam Deck punched well above its weight. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. At these price points, I mean, you're you're approaching gaming laptop territory, which is going to give you considerably more power. And Steam's not the only one at fault, right? I mean, you have ASUS and Lenovo. Both companies increased the prices of the Ally series of devices and the Lenovo Legion Go and the Lenovo Legion Go S and stuff. So, Valve is not the only one at fault here. But, the prices between the Steam Deck and the competitors are a lot closer. And if you go with a competitor, you might pay just a little bit more, but you're getting more up-to-date hardware, more RAM, etc. And that sucks. The ones that have to take the brunt of the force and kind of suffer the most from all these price increases, of course, is the consumer, the gamers, the hardcore gamers have to shell out more and more money to these companies all because somebody out there wants to generate an AI image of Larry Bird dunking on Grimace from the McDonald's mascots. I kind of touched on this already and I have videos about it as well, but you may be wondering why.

[00:06:16]Like what what has caused this? Why even the cheap hero of the Steam Deck is now way more expensive. What the hell's going on? And it has to do with all of those shortages and stuff that I talked about with these AI data centers popping up everywhere. They're getting more and more resources. They're ordering more and more RAM and more and more storage.

[00:06:34]There's just this huge supply chain issue. Resources are harder to get.

[00:06:39]Products are harder to get. And so, the price is going up and the stock is going down. And it sucks, but that's just kind of the reality of it. This AI gold rush has a stranglehold on the consumer PC market. And it's not just Valve. As I alluded to earlier, you know, Asus and Lenovo, they've had to increase prices, but you're also seeing it with PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, PC part manufacturers, laptop manufacturers.

[00:07:03]Everything across the board pretty much is increasing in price. And again, this AI gold rush is really just making everything far more expensive for consumers. Which all of this, of course, brings us to the question, is the Steam Deck even worth it anymore? At the beginning of the video, I already said no, it's not worth it. And that is something that's an opinion that I will stand behind until the prices go back to what they originally were, if they ever do. And the reason being goes back to the bang-to-buck ratio. The Steam Deck has never been the best performer. It's never been the most powerful thing on the market. The reason you would want to buy it is it's good enough. It punches above its weight. And it's at a very attractive price point. Again, that is no longer the case. So, it opens the door for consumers to look at what else you could get for that price point.

[00:07:52]As I mentioned before, you can get one of the competitor devices that will have a newer and better chip and more RAM, and so you might spend a little bit more, but you're getting better hardware, and the price gap is now a lot smaller than it used to be. You also have to look at the PC and the laptop market, which I know that that's not exactly apples to apples. The thing with the Steam Deck is it's a handheld device that you can dock and stuff. I get that, but a gaming laptop is going to give you a lot more power, and it's still in a portable form factor. But then you look at something like the Nintendo Switch 2, which is considerably cheaper, and you could buy a stack of games with the leftover money. There's just a lot that you can get at that price point that's going to be a better bang to buck ratio.

[00:08:32]You know, the Steam Deck's whole identity was an affordable jumping in point for the PC market, and at almost a thousand dollars, that's just gone. That identity is completely gone. And another thing that you have to consider is the hardware in the Steam Deck is aging.

[00:08:47]Now, I'll stand on my soapbox as long as I have to and tell you that the Steam Deck punches far above its weight. But with that said, it's got hardware that is aging, and it's already a few years old at this point. So, spending $800 to $1,000 on something that in a year or two will be almost completely outdated just doesn't seem like a smart move now.

[00:09:08]But what would be a smart move? If you're like my friend who has been waiting and waiting and waiting to get a Steam Deck, and you really want one, what would the smart move be? That's where you get into the refurb market.

[00:09:19]Steam actually puts up Steam Verified Refurbished models on Steam from time to time. It's a lot rarer, it doesn't happen quite as often as the retail stock, but it does happen. And unfortunately, those prices have also increased. It's a again about about increase across the board for everything. But, you can get the 512 GB model for about $650. So, there you're saving about 150 to 200 bucks. Also, look on places like Facebook Marketplace or something like that if you want to deal with that. It is possible to find one for a reasonable price. I do beg you though, do not pay a scalper's price.

[00:09:56]Whatever they're wanting, I can promise you it's not worth that. And if you really have the money burning a hole in your pocket, of course, just get one. I can't tell you what to do. I'm not a financial advisor. If you want to get one, get one. However, I would encourage you to look at something like Lenovo's products or ASUS's products just because they're a similar price point now and they have better hardware. So, there's ways to find a cheaper device and it's you can get around it. It just kind of sucks. And this whole market kind of sucks. You know, buying electronics, upgrading things, and and purchasing gaming devices used to be a lot of fun.

[00:10:34]But now, it's uh depressing. And unfortunately, that is just the trajectory of the market for now. Companies everywhere are chasing this AI boom and so it's going to continue to get worse before it gets better. And it could get considerably worse. And it may never get better. The problem that I have is all of these companies raised the prices, but they're never going to lower them. You have companies like Valve or Nintendo or Sony saying that the current supply chain issues and the shortages and stuff are the reason that they have to raise the price of this product. But when those kind of settle and kind of get back into normal levels, they're not going to lower the price.

[00:11:09]And that's what bothers me the most.

[00:11:11]This is kind of depressing. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you know, I've always been a Steam Deck stan and I kind of have to come in and say this is not cool.

[00:11:22]And hey, let's not just beat up on Valve. I know Valve is supposed to be the good guy, right? How could they ever do this? How could they change their ways and become the bad guy. But I can promise you they probably didn't want to do that. I mean, the bad press that comes from it is not favorable for them and it genuinely I think that they wanted to have a cheaper product for people to jump into the PC market. This is not what they wanted to do, but people want the Steam Deck and they want to sell it.

[00:11:54]They just can't sell it at that much of a loss. So, I kind of get it. I mean, a business got to do business, right? One thing I will say though is that this does not bode well for the Steam Machine at all. The Steam Machine, at least to me, was going to be one of those cheaper devices that can put you into the PC gaming market for a relatively reasonable cost and you get a relatively good amount of power out of it. Now, it doesn't really seem like it's going to be the case. You're better off just getting like a PlayStation, a pre-built system from somewhere, or something like that. But, again, I hate to be the bearer of bad news and I'm sorry there was no presentation. I just wanted to talk about this. So, if you found this video helpful, or fun, or you hate me, or anything like that, go ahead and subscribe. That that'll make it me That'll That'll I don't know.