Valve increases Steam Deck price and shocks everyone

Valve has decided to stir things up by announcing a significant price increase for the OLED models of the Steam Deck. The reason? The notorious increase in memory and storage costs.

Sky-High Prices!

In the UK, the 512GB OLED model jumped from £479 to £649. Meanwhile, the more powerful 1TB version will now be priced at £779, compared to the previous £569. It's not an easy pill for anyone to swallow!

According to Valve, the Steam Deck itself hasn't changed. What changed are the "component costs and global logistical challenges."

RAM has been the main culprit behind many of these increases. Since last November, the situation has been rough, with stores avoiding printing prices on tags, adjusting them daily. In April, the folks at Xbox also warned that this could raise prices and limit the stock of Project Helix. In February, Valve had to rethink its plans for the Steam Machine, all due to this memory shortage.

But, hold on! Valve isn't the only one riding this wave of new prices. Sony caught everyone off guard by raising the PlayStation 5 price in February. Recently, Nintendo also announced that the price of the Switch 2 will increase, citing, once again, the rise in component costs.

As for the Steam Machine, there's still no set price, but people are already concerned about the potential cost. A console that combines PC and TV sounds amazing, but with the Steam Deck's price hike, saving up for its launch seems like a wise choice.