Valve recently raised the price on the Steam Deck, making the handheld gaming PC cost up to $949 for the 1TB OLED model. While that’s a massive $300 increase over its original price, the Steam Deck is once again sold out.
It’s not surprising that the Steam Deck went up in price; basically every type of gaming hardware is going through the same thing right now. Back in March, the PlayStation 5 had its price increased, and it’s likely that further price increases will happen as the ongoing RAM crisis continues. There is probably a point where prices on gaming hardware go up by so much that nobody can afford it, but it doesn’t look like we’re at that point yet.
Even with the $300 price bump, the Steam Deck sold out after less than 24 hours back in stock. I don’t know how many units Valve was able to stock into its store, but it does seem like Valve spent a couple weeks building up its stock before putting the handheld back on its store.
Over the last couple weeks, Valve has been receiving plenty of “game console” shipments from China. At first, I thought this was a sign that the company was getting ready to finally release the Steam Machine, but it looks like at least a portion of these shipments – if not all of them – were Steam Deck restocks. That’s a lot of Steam Decks to sell through at these inflated prices, but it’s also possible that Valve is just staggering its stock so that its delivery infrastructure isn’t overwhelmed.
Now its just a question of when the Steam Deck will come back in stock. Before yesterday, the Deck was sold out for months. At the time, it was the most affordable way to get into PC gaming, especially in the face of the RAM crisis. That’s no longer true, but it looks like the Steam Deck’s popularity is enough to make it sell out regardless. Maybe the higher price will at least help Valve keep it in stock for people who still want to buy it, no matter the cost.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra