The main reason the Steam Deck was popular to begin with was that it was a relatively affordable gaming PC in a handheld form factor. It has been getting less and less affordable as more time has gone on.
Totally get it. But, being real, budget is always a relative term. I wouldn’t have been able to afford the cheapest version before, period. Mine was gifted to me. Items like this are only “budget” if you actually have a budget for a one off gaming device in the first place.
I’m in the same boat as you if mine dies. No way in hell could I swing even the prices on the LCD version if they still offered them, much less the oled. It’s what? 750+ USD for the lower tier version? That’s almost my fucking mortgage. The LCD would still sit at the 600+ range most likely.
And the deck is technically a full PC if you get a dock and set it up, but that’s still a damn big outlay for a low tier PC.
So, yeah, fuck Altman and every other dipshit pushing hopped up llms like they’re the second coming.
I mean, it was also popular because it was relatively open in a field of closed handhelds. You could play, basically, whatever you wanted on it. Price was a factor as well… but it was never cheap. Just less expensive than other options.
I bought an ally x about a year and a half ago. At the time it commanded a substantial premium over the OLED deck, but it had the specs to back it up. Since then the price gap has closed and Asus has released another version of the Ally. Asus isn’t the only other handheld maker in town and you can install Bazzite or Steam OS on most of the deck alternatives. Unless you want an out of the box experience that doesn’t involve windows, I am not sure the price point for four year old hardware makes any sense.
There’s better handhelds out there now, but they’re more expensive. The Lenovo legion go 2 is supposed to be good if you install bazzite or steam os on it but the top end models are like £2000
No other handhelds have the dual trackpads, symmetrical layout, and capacitive thumbsticks that the Steam Deck has, which are the selling points for me.
Depends how long competitors can keep their prices in that range. I assume lenovo have some economy of scale in their favor, but I think they’ll eventually be priced up and out too.
At this stage, the price hike of the steam deck is probably more about making the price of the upcoming Steam Box and VR headset look like an easier pill to swallow, and not about actually needing to raise the price of the steam deck.
Could be both, but I think that both RAM and SSDs have gotten so expensive due to the AI bubble that even high volume manufacturers are having to raise prices by an unreasonable amount to stay profitable.
You’re not wrong, but I don’t think it went up $300 over what it was when they released the OLED model. The micron 2230 1 tb ssd is like $200 right now (micron was a major provider of 1 TB steam deck storage, but Valve used several) and that’s what I can get it for. They were like $140 when the OLED came out in 2023, they went below $100 like a nearly a year later. Ram has definitely shot way up, but I doubt even that has straight up 5x on the price, to constitute the rest of that $300 increase.
I’ll still say this will be a lot more about making the steam box have less sticker shock.
Companies usually do not pay the same prices as an end customer, so they probably didn’t paid $100 but way less (i know a dude with a company that pay WAY less an SSD than what i can find myself, like 40 instead of 120 and he isn’t a big tech company, it was before the price hell) and probably the companies that produce SSD and RAM made the prices more similiar to the ones end customers pay because it’s just more profitable to sell to AI companies instead of Valve
The main reason the Steam Deck was popular to begin with was that it was a relatively affordable gaming PC in a handheld form factor. It has been getting less and less affordable as more time has gone on.
Going to be a very tough sell from now on.
Not if everyone else goes up too
That doesn’t magically give me money to buy any alternatives with.
All this shit is Sam Altman’s fault, slimy fuck
I wish it was him alone, would be so much easier. This blame goes at least to all other big tech companies
I can still make fun of the guy for being a baby welfare queen bigger than Elon Musk.
Totally get it. But, being real, budget is always a relative term. I wouldn’t have been able to afford the cheapest version before, period. Mine was gifted to me. Items like this are only “budget” if you actually have a budget for a one off gaming device in the first place.
I’m in the same boat as you if mine dies. No way in hell could I swing even the prices on the LCD version if they still offered them, much less the oled. It’s what? 750+ USD for the lower tier version? That’s almost my fucking mortgage. The LCD would still sit at the 600+ range most likely.
And the deck is technically a full PC if you get a dock and set it up, but that’s still a damn big outlay for a low tier PC.
So, yeah, fuck Altman and every other dipshit pushing hopped up llms like they’re the second coming.
No no you mean Scam Fartman his alter ego.
I mean, it was also popular because it was relatively open in a field of closed handhelds. You could play, basically, whatever you wanted on it. Price was a factor as well… but it was never cheap. Just less expensive than other options.
I bought an ally x about a year and a half ago. At the time it commanded a substantial premium over the OLED deck, but it had the specs to back it up. Since then the price gap has closed and Asus has released another version of the Ally. Asus isn’t the only other handheld maker in town and you can install Bazzite or Steam OS on most of the deck alternatives. Unless you want an out of the box experience that doesn’t involve windows, I am not sure the price point for four year old hardware makes any sense.
I definitely wouldn’t have gotten one if it was more than the $350 I paid. Although after I got one I would have considered paying more.
Noooo way would I pay $750+
There’s better handhelds out there now, but they’re more expensive. The Lenovo legion go 2 is supposed to be good if you install bazzite or steam os on it but the top end models are like £2000
No other handhelds have the dual trackpads, symmetrical layout, and capacitive thumbsticks that the Steam Deck has, which are the selling points for me.
Yeah fair point. I doubt they’d meet the deck’s ergonomic quality either.
For real. Doesn’t this just push people toward some of the cooler Lenovos, etc?
No.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/3106428/lenovo-legion-go-prices-have-jumped-by-up-to-650-in-six-months.html
Yeah, this is effecting everything and everyone, not just one or two companies.
I could technically sell the parts of my computer today at a higher price than I bought them at because of all this bullshit.
Thanks for the correction and especially the link.
I guess that’s on me for not checking in such a long time.
Depends how long competitors can keep their prices in that range. I assume lenovo have some economy of scale in their favor, but I think they’ll eventually be priced up and out too.
Their prices have already been hiked up by way more than the SD
Nah. It’s all relative. If everything goes up accordingly, then steamdeck will remain a good buy.
Or nothing will be a good buy because people won’t be able to afford to get anything.
What about refurbished gaming computer and consoles?
Have you seen the prices of used memory and storage?
At this stage, the price hike of the steam deck is probably more about making the price of the upcoming Steam Box and VR headset look like an easier pill to swallow, and not about actually needing to raise the price of the steam deck.
Could be both, but I think that both RAM and SSDs have gotten so expensive due to the AI bubble that even high volume manufacturers are having to raise prices by an unreasonable amount to stay profitable.
You’re not wrong, but I don’t think it went up $300 over what it was when they released the OLED model. The micron 2230 1 tb ssd is like $200 right now (micron was a major provider of 1 TB steam deck storage, but Valve used several) and that’s what I can get it for. They were like $140 when the OLED came out in 2023, they went below $100 like a nearly a year later. Ram has definitely shot way up, but I doubt even that has straight up 5x on the price, to constitute the rest of that $300 increase.
I’ll still say this will be a lot more about making the steam box have less sticker shock.
Companies usually do not pay the same prices as an end customer, so they probably didn’t paid $100 but way less (i know a dude with a company that pay WAY less an SSD than what i can find myself, like 40 instead of 120 and he isn’t a big tech company, it was before the price hell) and probably the companies that produce SSD and RAM made the prices more similiar to the ones end customers pay because it’s just more profitable to sell to AI companies instead of Valve
That was part of my point and why I said that those prices were what I could buy them for.