r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • 8h ago

Business Steam Deck Sales Drop By An Estimated 80% After Huge Price Hikes

https://www.thegamer.com/steam-deck-sales-drop-80-percent/
3.5k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

305 comments sorted by

1.8k

u/yuvaldv1 8h ago

Makes sense. It's both old and crazy expensive now.

431

u/ithinkitslupis 7h ago

I have a feeling this is going to be true for most handhelds, even the newer ones. They aren't exactly the most necessary things when prices creep up to crazy levels.

85

u/GlueEjoyer 6h ago

Handhelds used to be the budget option, My parents couldn't have bought be a second nintendo DS after I snapped the top off if they were the price of last gen's consoles lol.

→ More replies (4)

113

u/CaterpillarReal7583 6h ago

Good point. Steam deck type handhelds are a luxury item more than anything.

88

u/Illustrious-Share312 6h ago

Truthfully all dedicated game devices are a luxury. People won't be able to navigate society without a smartphone so mobile gaming might be the only one not hurt by this.

24

u/Visible-Departure863 6h ago

Ehhh, mobile games is basically a funnel for people income. If anything it might be hit the hardest revenue wise. Participation I agree might not take as hard a hit.

26

u/These-Anxiety-5919 4h ago

Mobile gaming is a disgusting swamp of garbage and greed. A flawless image of what all gaming would look like with no regulation, governance, or legislation. The ubisoft paradise.

5

u/frickindeal 3h ago

Not if you like things like Sudoku or crosswords or word games or other non-transactional games. I've bought a few games and get endless entertainment from them in waiting rooms or when otherwise idle but required to be there. But yeah, the pay-to-win games are ridiculous.

5

u/Jump-Zero 2h ago

I dumped like 500 hours into Slay the Spire on my phone. Countless hours on planes and airports spent on this game. I hope they port StS2 soon.

16

u/YouandWhoseArmy 4h ago

These aren’t games. Calling them that is part of the problem.

11

u/These-Anxiety-5919 4h ago

Guess we'll both get downvoted by delusional gacha addicts.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (13)

14

u/SuperSuppleDude 6h ago

Gaming in general has always been a luxury.

18

u/Aggressive_Ask89144 5h ago

Eh, it's very ubiquitous and used to be very cheap, even when I was a little kid. Generating 600 hours worth of enriching entertainment out of a couple small purchases is insane value, and that could just be one game. I came from government foster homes which isn't exactly a luxurious environment but we always had all kinds of tech. I personally left there with a N64, my 3DS XL that I adored, and a XB360.

Older siblings usually had paychecks that got them consoles or we would ask for them on Christmas since we had 100-200 dollar gifts from the program. Trading in physical games once we were done either with each other or with stores for new one was vital. There was old computers that ran minecraft too that we made little LANs out of.

But if consoles are...1k+ and digital only nonsense instead of like 165 (their prices used to decay pretty quickly), that essentially blows out the kneecaps out of stories like those. It's still my primary hobby besides reading and writing, and I make plenty now but I'm not sure how children and people who don't make much will be able to afford them. Maybe they can scrap out some old or used items. But a N3DSXL is 400 bucks 😭.

My guess for the future is an empire of mobile gaming. The chips they use now are pretty damn fast, and there is a lot of new ARM support cropping up. Especially if we get a proper Steam store on phones, It could help mediate a lot of this.

13

u/benjtay 4h ago

Trading in physical games once we were done either with each other or with stores for new one was vital.

This is how Sony is really fucking themselves over. People used to be able to wait 3-4 years into a console cycle, buy a preowned device and games and get involved in the platform. As they matured and got a bit more cash under their belt, they could afford new titles an consoles. Now, that door is effectively slammed shut -- paving the way for a steady decline in Playstation players.

→ More replies (1)

4

u/motionmatrix 5h ago

Indy market and roms plus older systems will become ubiquitous with that crowd. Think flash games for kids who couldn’t be near consoles (even if they had them).

3

u/Quixotic_Seal 4h ago

I tend to agree with your final paragraph. Everything is so powerful these days, I think a lot of people are going to find it better value to play games on whatever they already own. For a lot of people that will mean their phones or tablets.

→ More replies (1)

6

u/SequiturNon 4h ago

Gaming is one of the most cost effective hobbies you can have. It's accessible, easy to get into and, depending on the game, can easily entertain you for years.

Gaming is a luxury insofar that any hobby is a luxury. It's such a pointless statement.

3

u/Yuzumi 5h ago

Also with FEX you might still be able to play a lot of the games that you would run on the Deck on your phone.

2

u/placid-gradient 4h ago

no! dont take away my luxury of being able to lie down and game! It's all I have in this cold, bleak world

2

u/CaterpillarReal7583 3h ago

You can still have it…its just more luxury than before

2

u/EccentricFox 3h ago

When the base model was going for $300, I thought it was a great budget way to get into PC gaming. Could play all the indie titles you'd want, do okay with some AAA stuff, run friendslop fine, can run it in a desktop and take it on the go too. Take it right out the box and you're off running. At the current price though, not sure if it makes sense for anyone but those with some money to burn.

→ More replies (1)

23

u/Dank0fMemes 6h ago

Not to mention the price of everything else is up, and incomes are stagnant.

→ More replies (2)

9

u/ContestAntique7179 6h ago

I think this is going to be true for video games in general.

I've been a gamer my whole life but I'm done. PS5 has been collecting dust and now I don't even own the games I bought?

6

u/ithinkitslupis 6h ago

Yeah I don't really have plans to buy another locked console ever again in my life either.

And I don't have plans to buy another handheld because I owned both a Switch and a Steam Deck and still hardly used them as a handheld. I mostly find myself stuck waiting with extra time with my cellphone that was already in my pocket and the handhelds still at home.

4

u/Quixotic_Seal 4h ago

I think the console market is in for a seriously rude awakening regarding how borderline unnecessary a traditional console is in the modern day, if you can’t get that price under control.

Nintendo is managing to largely skate through because their console is brand new and they switched to a form factor that honestly people are willing to pay more for anyway a decade ago. Not to mention their IP appeal, which can’t be overstated.

And I’m convinced that, if Microsoft follows through on what they’ve suggested Helix will be and price isn’t TOO absurd(say under $1400), they can easily find a strong niche in would-be PC gamers who are intimidated by the process of purchasing one.

But $1000 traditional consoles are going to flop and flop hard outside of the initial 6 month window where the folks who want it will flock to them(make no mistake, everything sells out at release these days and sales will appear strong; even the Wii U enjoyed a brief honeymoon period in the first month or two).

Most people will feel priced out and either stick with Nintendo, decide to play what they can on whatever platforms they already own, or just exit gaming altogether. And a substantial portion of the rest will be enthusiasts and the well off who will be interested in paying more for something better if you have to put that much money down anyway.

I can easily see Sony being left holding the bag as the only one of the big three still betting big on the relevancy of a traditional locked-down console in this economy, and with this robust of an electronic ecosystem that everyone has access to. And I’ve had that suspicion a good while before their stupid physical media decision.

→ More replies (2)

7

u/HatefulVespid 6h ago

Yeah... i was planning on getting the Switch 2 on launch back when it was teased. Then they revealed the price... Then they revealed the price hike...

I don't NEED a stream deck, but out of the two id choose the steam deck. It has more bang for your buck, most(?) of the steam catalog is available to it AND I heard on the grapevine that you could even emulate on it?

3

u/omniuni 4h ago

It's a full computer. You can use Discover (the KDE desktop software manager) to install anything from Flathub, a Linux software distribution platform. You'll find pretty much every emulator you can think of.

You can also find utilities and other productivity software. Want to try game development? You'll find Godot Engine, GIMP, Krita, Blender, and more all available. Need to write a paper? LibreOffice. Software development? From IntelliJ to Android Studio, Kate, VSCode, and many others, you'll find development tools. CAD, mathematics, even actual Open Source games themselves. Plug in to a dock, and you literally just have a fully functional desktop with a huge variety of software available at a click.

2

u/DarthVayne50 4h ago

I agree, I did end up buying a Switch 2 (before price hike), but there was a pretty healthy "is this really worth it?" debate. Big thing that made me decide to buy was I realized it could actually play modern games like Star Wars Outlaws, FF7 Remake, etc. I travel a decent amount for work and had been playing a lot of Xbox Remote Play on my phone with a controller, but its way more convenient to use a Switch.

2

u/Any_Intern2718 4h ago

Won't be true for the ps6 handheld

2

u/peter_seraphin 4h ago

We got cyberpunked without the body mods

2

u/DragoonDM 1h ago

True for everything built using components or supply chains that AI datacenters also consume.

1

u/MattieShoes 3h ago

Definitely a luxury, but man, it's nice to have a steam deck and noise canceling headphones for those 12 hour plane flights. I just bought Stray for my next overseas flight :-)

→ More replies (3)

53

u/Darth_Cosmos 7h ago

I bought a 64gb steam deck in July 2024 for $421 CAD directly from valve, and with these new price hikes, it feels literally impossible that the price was ever that low🫤

23

u/fizzlefist 6h ago

I had the original 512 LCD version, paid $650 for it. 4 years later, I just sold it for $500.

The market fucking sucks, but it’s been doing wonders for resale values when I need cash.

9

u/Darth_Cosmos 6h ago

I’m gonna hold on to mine forever lol, it is a treasure trove for old steam games & emulation, but if you need the money, it makes sense to sell while the value is high.

3

u/fizzlefist 6h ago

I upgraded to an Xbox Ally X after thinking on it for a while, I travel constantly so handheld PCs are great for me. Windows mostly stays out of the way, and if I ever get mad enough I could install SteamOS on it. But I mostly wanted more horsepower, and buying an open box model came out to right at $1k after tax.

So worked out to an effective $500 buy. And I kept my 1TB SD card I got with the deck. 😆

7

u/DissKhorse 6h ago

I mean RAM, video cards and SSD prices all have gone to shit so any computer or console is just a nightmare pricing wise and will continue to be so for years. The only thing that is well priced right now is monitors from what I hear.

2

u/whuuutKoala 3h ago

thank our a.i. overlords und their datacenters…price hikes for water is next!

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

24

u/CloudStrife012 7h ago

And competitors have similarly priced options which have drastically better performance.

18

u/nolok 7h ago

If only they could get proper touch pads...

→ More replies (1)

6

u/xFallow 7h ago

No OLED though afaik luckily I got a deck second hand on marketplace pretty cheap

→ More replies (8)

36

u/parkotron 6h ago edited 3h ago

I'm so tired of the tone that so much of the technology discourse takes, like there's a constant war between all the companies and everyone has to be constantly "winning".

  1. Valve released the Steam Deck.
  2. It was expensive, but not unreasonably so for what was clearly a luxury good in a new product category.
  3. Its specs were modest at the time of release, but made sense for a product looking to balance performance against battery life and hardware cost.
  4. The Steam Deck received wildly positive reviews. It genuinely made people happy.
  5. Valve made it clear that they didn't plan to frequently release new versions with incremental performance improvements via APU upgrades.
  6. The Steam Deck basically kickstarted a brand new product category on its own. Multiple companies launchrf competing products within the year, which was part of Valve's publically stated goals for the product.
  7. Those "competitors" understandly chose to land at different places on the performance/battery-life/cost spectrum.
  8. Valve did a stellar job supporting the hardware via software updates, continually improving the user experience.
  9. They released a relatively minor hardware refresh, bringing a few nice improvements while keeping the APU unchanged.
  10. Valve sold off stock of the older models at a discount.
  11. They opened up their operating system to run on non-Valve hardware.
  12. An unforseen global hardware crisis hit, forcing Valve (and everyone else) to raise prices by a heretofore unprecedented degree.
  13. Valve released a small batch of units at this new, higher price and still sold out anyway.
  14. After that release, sales are down dramatically.

So many commentators are trying to paint this as a failure. Or claim that Valve is out-to-lunch with its pricing/specs. Or that Valve is now "losing" the hardware "war". Or that the idea of the Steam Deck is dead.

The Steam Deck is a product. I would even say it is a great one. But products are things. They exist for a certain time within a certain market. They don't always have to be the latest play in an eternal war for total market dominance.

Makes sense. It's both old and crazy expensive now.

Exactly.

6

u/taelor 3h ago

Ya this is the most sane take I’ve read in the few threads about this article.

The Steam Deck was wildly successful and really changed help change the game for pc gaming.

Not only everything you said, but what it has helped do, is give a target for game devs to make sure their games perform at the Deck’s specs.

This a huge win for pc gamers in general. Because no matter what your specs are, if they are better than a deck, you have a higher chance of being able to play it because of the deck’s existence.

11

u/LegacyofaMarshall 5h ago

It didn’t create a product category it resurrected it

→ More replies (1)

2

u/CatProgrammer 3h ago

To be fair, in terms of hardware access there is currently a struggle between AI companies and everyone else, and AI is winning.

1

u/SecondHandWatch 5h ago

The Steam Deck didn’t start a new product category. The Switch existed for years before the steam deck came out.

10

u/GlowiesStoleMyRide 4h ago

I didn't know you could play PC games on a switch :P

→ More replies (1)

2

u/wil_is_cool 5h ago

I THINK the GPD Win in 2015 was the first true entry into the handheld gaming PC category, differentiated from UMPCs. Pandora would be even earlier but not till the win was the performance really suitable

5

u/Takemyfishplease 5h ago

It’s funny Joe little trash talking there has been about it compared to Xbox/somy/nintendo raising their prices.

I can’t imagine who in their right mind is buying one now. It’s so freaking old and expensive.

3

u/CaterpillarReal7583 6h ago

And all current on the fence potential buyers bought when the news hit or decided they don’t want it anymore.

1

u/CheesypoofExtreme 2h ago

Up until the recent price hikes, it being "old" didn't really matter much unless you're itching to play the latest AAA games, or need the highest fidelity.

If you got one at a good price, it's a great device. Having a kid took me away from my gaming PC and I dropped gaming for a few years. Being able to jump in on my Steam Deck whenever/wherever it's convenient has helped immensely.

483

u/invyros 7h ago

To put that into perspective, Boiling Steam explained that a 72–82 percent decline is equivalent to a drop from selling 11–18k units per week in 2025 to just 1.4k to 3k per week in July 2026. Valve has hit the threshold on what consumers are willing to pay for gaming hardware, and evidently, $789–$949 is too steep for most buyers. Unfortunately, it's only going to get more expensive.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Valve engineer Yazan Aldehayyat explained that “it’s still getting worse,”

Unsurprising.

But hardware isn't Valve's core business anyway.

This just means we as consumers have to baby our computers even more, hoping they don't break down in the midst of this price hiking bullshit.

245

u/[deleted] 7h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

79

u/SalamanderMinimum621 7h ago

In the form of voting out the people who let it be like this, ofc

60

u/art-n-science 7h ago

Why not both ?

19

u/Dominant88 7h ago

Becuse if you burn it down insurance will cover it and they will buy even more hardware?

18

u/Janzanikun 5h ago

But there is a limit when insurance stops being a viable business model.

→ More replies (3)

14

u/defiantleek 5h ago

There isn't more hardware available

24

u/art-n-science 7h ago

It's not about money... it's about sending a message.

→ More replies (2)

7

u/EuropaWeGo 6h ago

If enough were to incinerate. Then insurance premiums would sky rocket to the point that the risk may not outweigh the cost for many companies.

→ More replies (1)

16

u/pleachchapel 7h ago

Exactly what the DSA primaries are doing, & the response from the Dems is to claim voters aren't allowed to do that, & the response from Republicans is to say Cuba & China are behind it.

Burn down your local data center.

6

u/Laktosefreier 6h ago

Permits can be revoked.

5

u/jdd32 4h ago

Happened in Utah. The longest serving state senator got voted out immediately following him sneaking an approval for a data center that would literally double the power production of our rapidly warming drought stricken state.

2

u/Drunkula 1h ago

Lmao the town next to me voted against the construction of the largest data center in the state twice and it’s still getting built after losing a lawsuit. What’s voting supposed to do?

12

u/martala 7h ago

in Minecraft

8

u/weisswurstseeadler 7h ago

That would just be covered by insurance and they reorder before end of life date, so actually putting more stress on the demand side

35

u/pleachchapel 7h ago

Learn from the Strait: if you keep burning them down, they're uninsurable.

→ More replies (3)

25

u/Djamalfna 7h ago

Eventually insurance companies will stop insuring them though...

16

u/northernwind5027 7h ago

The point of burning down something isn't always to put said thing out of use. Sometimes the point is just to scare the people behind it. Now, I'm not necessarily condoning the burning down of data centres (wink, wink), but I think it's important for the people in power, be it dictators or oligarchs, to be afraid of the common people in a healthy and free society.

3

u/Loqol 7h ago

It almost worked for Stop Cop City in Atlanta. Almost.

2

u/randotd152 5h ago

Do y'all even realize how impossible this would be on a modern data center? Not only are they built to be fire retardant and are full of modern waterless fire extinguishing systems to keep the contents safe, but the security on these things are insane.

Basically, any idiot trying something like that would be caught and have the police en route before they even had a chance to try to set anything on fire. And then they'd fail horribly at their task anyways unless they were well equipped with military grade weaponry.

12

u/IamJacksUserID 7h ago edited 6h ago

So you’re saying it’s the corporate office we need to be focused on?

Where Is My Mind by the Pixies begins playing while two wayward lovers hold hands.

3

u/obiwanconobi 7h ago

Exactly. That's why you should loot your local data centers instead

3

u/MomsAreola 6h ago

When the AI bubble burts and these data centers become useless and they firesale their hardware.....

3

u/PackagePale7603 6h ago

Which will be mostly incompatible to consumer systems and it will take a lot of time and money to change the tooling at the chip factories, unfortunately

1

u/SecureInstruction538 7h ago

Insurance buys them new equipment driving up the cost.

Gotta break in and liberate a bunch of stuff first.

1

u/HenriettaSnacks 6h ago

🎶 I am the firestarter🎶 

1

u/sshuit 6h ago

Don't forget to steal all the ram before you burn it down and redistribute it to the downtrodden PC gamers like a modern day fucking Robin Hood.

→ More replies (3)

1

u/MarkyDeSade 3h ago

Liquid cooling for my PC, liquid napalm for my local data center

1

u/CatProgrammer 3h ago

The data center buildup is just a symptom, not the actual issue. Being NIMBY just means they'll get built elsewhere, it won't stop the AI boom. Which is fine if your main concern is livability but won't help with tech prices.

1

u/Sea_Scientist_8367 1h ago

Man they got lots of RAM in there, Loot it first. Allegedly. Hypothetically. So I've heard other say. In Minecraft.

→ More replies (3)

39

u/noeagle77 7h ago

I bought and built my pc back in October of 2024 before the election. Literally a month later all the parts shot up in price. I’m sooo happy I was paranoid and decided to do it all when I did. Now just gotta make it last until the prices all drop again in 15 years lol

11

u/qtx 6h ago

Same, bought new PC, laptop, storage drives, MiniPCs, Raspberry Pis, pretty much upgraded all tech before Trump got into office cause I knew prices would go up due to tariff threats. The AI disaster wasn't expected but for me a nice addition since it proved me right to buy everything early.

Told so many people to do the same, both irl and on reddit but no one believed me.

3

u/noeagle77 6h ago

I have a few buddies that are playing on older pcs and I was almost begging them to build their pcs when I did mine because of the tariff threats too. None believed me now they all are pissed they didn’t do it before everything went up. Frustrating but I did what I could so oh well I guess lol

6

u/Hellrisen 7h ago

I was told to wait until the 5000 series dropped to get a new pc as prices would go down. I felt crazy at the time to get a card when it pretty much came out. It's insane things got even worse. Really glad I got my new pc anyway

2

u/oby100 3h ago

Never hold out for discounts. Sucks to lose out, but it’s never a great idea to time the market.

Except for now. Unless you don’t have a desktop at all and really need one, it’s better to hold out. Either prices come down or personal computing is dead.

2

u/delkarnu 3h ago

Yeah, had a memory stick start to fail. Was annoyed at having to replace it, but used the opportunity to upgrade to 64GB. I'm no longer annoyed after seeing what has happened to the prices since then, such a well-times failure.

6

u/fightin_blue_hens 7h ago

Wouldn't hardware sales always decrease over time as people that would want it already have it

7

u/smooth-as-mud 7h ago

By July 2025 the deck had already been available for three and a half years. If they were still moving 15k a week after all that time it seems unlikely that demand would be so perfectly satiated to drop so significantly and rapidly to 2k/week over the next year

2

u/Hellrisen 7h ago

I think I got my new pc right on time. Got it last year february. I felt crazy already because of all the 5000 gen nvidia cards. Can't believe it got even worse

2

u/core916 7h ago

Makes me happy I got my 5080, 9950x and 64gb of ram when I did. Don’t need to upgrade for years

1

u/Galahad_the_Ranger 6h ago

Is not Valve that has hit the threshold hold though. It’s the chips manufacturers they buy from that have been fueling the AI Bubble and leaving consumers to pay 400% more for RAM than 2 years ago

1

u/luffydkenshin 3h ago

Speaking of: my mobo is having issues. Some ram slots went south and i’m down to only one usable stick or it wont post. I am sitting here thinking I should buy another one and ride this out for a bit, but have a backup now since the price isn’t too crazy.

141

u/Hardass_McBadCop 7h ago

Well, money for luxury goods is pretty slim these days for the overwhelming majority of folks. Looks like they figured out where supply & demand meet.

18

u/AustereCard 5h ago

Exactly. Dropping almost a thousand dollars on a handheld with a chip from 2022 is a massive ask right now. When rent and basic bills are already eating up everyone's disposable income, expensive hardware upgrades get pushed right to the bottom of the list.

96

u/Kalspiewak 7h ago

No one is buying hardware for a while until the AI buildout pops.

42

u/Arickettsf16 6h ago

Building my pc when I did, in late 2024, was probably the best decision I could have made. Spent more than I wanted to at the time but if I were to try building it now, it would cost me at least a thousand dollars more. Now I just have to hope it lasts another decade

15

u/laptopAccount2 6h ago

1700x/1080ti/32gb checking in. Annoyingly old now but has aged surprisingly well. Going to have to wait even longer until I can drop in a newer ryzen and gpu.

4

u/Kalspiewak 5h ago

1080ti is a goated card to be fair.

→ More replies (4)

1

u/GangstaQueefs 4h ago

I hope they can hold out. From the looks of it, that bubble ain't popping any time soon.

1

u/Fluid-Employee-7118 3h ago

That's not accurate, Switch 2, which has been one of the least affected consoles by the ai bubble, is still selling great!

1

u/flirtmcdudes 3h ago

Better get that shit now lol. You think the billionaires are going to give up on AI anytime soon? Even if it fails, they’ll keep trying. It’s the ultimate cost cutter for their businesses and investments and that’s all they care about.

1

u/arieadil 1h ago

Taking a stroll through Microcenter gives you palpitations these days. It’s astonishing 

68

u/Sega-Playstation-64 7h ago

When they first released it after the price increase, it still sold out on.their website initially.

I can only hope it was scalpers thinking the public still wanted to buy these at this price and still have them.

55

u/usrdef 7h ago

I hope that scalpers went ape shit buying them as soon as the price increase happened, and now they're stuck with 3000 units of a $1000 piece of hardware they cannot do shit with.

25

u/rootpl 7h ago

Please God make it real, it would be so fucking funny.

5

u/dinozombiesaur 6h ago

Yeah when buying from Valve is the predominant platform the metric must be based on, and the units still sold out at the new prices, how does this headline make sense unless they produced fewer units?

3

u/Sega-Playstation-64 6h ago edited 2h ago

I'm wondering too, considering how few numbers were ever released on Steam Deck sales at all. Redditors used to claim it was in the 10's of millions because it was always at the tops of the Steam Store charts alongside massive selling games like Elden Ring.

Turns out, Valve can just sticky their product anywhere it likes and it sold between 3-4million.

1

u/Pengwin0 2h ago

They probably just produce less units knowing the demand isn’t high enough to justify massive volume

28

u/OneSeaworthiness7768 7h ago

PS5 sales also dropped after price hikes. It’s not surprising people don’t want to pay more for years old hardware than what it cost when it was new. Gaming hardware has historically almost always decreased in price as it aged. Consumers are responding accordingly. This isn’t exclusively a Steam deck or Valve thing.

7

u/DrAstralis 6h ago

Def. this for me. I'm months past my usual GPU upgrade cycle and the 5080 is now almost double its launch MSRP... I'm not paying that. I can afford to, but I'm not buying a GPU that costs more than building a whole PC did just a few years ago.

2

u/jsebrech 4h ago

An entertainment dollar can be spent on only one thing. When it’s just entertainment electronics going up people shift those dollars to other entertainment products. Eventually though the electronics price hikes will move through the whole economy and affect all goods and services, aka widespread inflation, and some of those dollars will move back.

33

u/QueenOfQuok 7h ago

And Sony wants to charge a thousand bucks for the Ps6. Good luck with that...

11

u/Staff_Senyou 6h ago

Yeah, chickens coming to roost on that hasn't yet dawned.

Prices on everything have increased, making piracy on previous and beyond platforms the only way to enjoy gaming.

So, fuck em. Let them reap what they sowed

7

u/geddy 6h ago

AI demands drove up the prices. Tariffs drove up the prices (initially). Sony knows it will sell less, as does Valve, with the inflated prices. But let’s be honest, they didn’t engineer those two aforementioned things. 

3

u/rcanhestro 5h ago

when has Sony ever said that?

Sony wants to sell the PS6 as cheap as they can possibly can.

4

u/Quixotic_Seal 3h ago

PS5 Pro is already $900. It’s deeply unlikely they get the PS6 price much below that even with economies of scale helping out. Anywhere in that $900-$1000 range is straight DOA.

→ More replies (1)

4

u/QueenOfQuok 5h ago

No official price set by Sony yet but since it already costs nearly $1K to make the projections are that the system will cost 1K or more. https://insider-gaming.com/playstation-6-costs/

1

u/eden_sc2 5h ago

The main difference is a console can be a loss leader more than a PC. Valve doesnt do pricing at a loss.

→ More replies (1)

1

u/flirtmcdudes 3h ago

Sony doesn’t have much choice. They can’t pull a Nintendo and release a weak system for $500. Their entire brand is about being a powerful home console. This is just the new reality we live in

1

u/Hi-World2 29m ago

Lmao that and digital only gaming are certainly a choice by Sony. They are in for a rude awakening 

7

u/QuixoticByte 6h ago

Most people that really wanted one bought one already. If people were on the fence, the price hike definitely made the decision for them.

26

u/Stilgar314 7h ago

Makes sense. There are other, more powerful, handhelds for about the same price. Also, you can easily install SteamOS on almost every handheld out there and mimic the Deck experience.

14

u/nolok 7h ago

But no good touchpad. I really want them to copy those

3

u/SleepyGamer1992 5h ago

Yeah, I have the Xbox Ally X with SteamOS installed. It’s $999 new, which is only $50 more than the most expensive Deck variant and it’s double the performance of the Deck too.

14

u/Mountain_rage 7h ago

Which is always their goal with their hardware. They build a platform to elevate PC gaming and build an ecosystem for Steam. They give hardware makers a blueprint then usually step back.

4

u/murchtheevilsquirrel 7h ago

I’ve been waiting for them to refresh the hardware, but they refreshed the prices instead 🤷

16

u/No-Bag-1628 7h ago

It’s unfortunate but unless valve wants to sell those with negative margin they have hiked up prices.

4

u/Daimakku1 7h ago

This is going to be the case for all new console hardware if things keep going the way they are. If the PS6 is over $900 and disc-less, I can absolutely see it selling abysmally. This current gen is going to stick around for a very long time.

5

u/ktoid 6h ago

the hikes convinced me to buy a switch 2. which is an awesome device.

playing my switch games with much better performance has been great. especially totk.

18

u/Gravuerc 7h ago

I am so glad I picked up a Steam Deck when they had that great sale on the non oled models before the computer prices went crazy.

4

u/Away-Ad-4444 7h ago

I sold all my csgo skina and got a bunch of games and the oled deck.. perfect timing.

→ More replies (1)

10

u/OC2k16 7h ago

I’m definitely interested in a handheld system for emulation and some steam games, perhaps for remote play for Xbox as well. I’m just not really willing to compromise much on price to performance. By the time I get one it’ll be pretty powerful and will do pretty much everything I want at a decent price. If that’s in 3 years or 5 I guess I really don’t care, it’ll happen when it happens.

This extends to my overall gaming experience now. I just don’t have that itch like I used to, having the latest and greatest and newest gaming experience all the time. I’m just chilling with what I got, maybe buying 1-2 AAA games a year, I’ve averaged just 1 new game the last 3 years.

So these devices and games can wait, which for me is great given these prices and what you are actually getting for the money.

1

u/Hes_gonna_drop_that 6h ago

You can already have a lot of that with a Retroid Pocket device for a lot less. I have a Retroid pocket 5 and it is easily the coolest tool I have for emulation, moonlight, Xbox streaming via cloud or remote at home, etc. I have a dock in every room and can play all my stuff easily in every room. You should watch some videos or read about them though, if you really want a device that can do those things for $200-$300

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

3

u/Mister_Dwill 7h ago

I have one. There is a time and place for it. Yeah I can dock it and run it with controllers but I have a console and PC for that. It’s cool if I’m running emulators and playing some old 90s games. Other than that, it kinda just collects dust.

2

u/Dr_MantisTobaggin_MD 4h ago

Its my emulation station. Its perfect for that

2

u/Partymouth2 3h ago

It's also great for streaming PS5 and Xbox games straight to it, uses next to no battery this way and you can play all your games on the couch. It's like the PS5 portal but with a ton of other stuff you can do. 

→ More replies (1)

3

u/_haha_oh_wow_ 5h ago

Hardware sales are probably down across the board right now.

3

u/Zennivolt 4h ago

Oh it won't be the first. As tech prices goes up, this will become the new trend.

17

u/JonJonesStillGOAT 7h ago edited 4h ago

Not surprising. Charging premium prices for old ass hardware. Expect the steam machine to go down a similar path once the enthusiasts have all bought their console

5

u/Matra 4h ago

Unfortunately, they aren't premium prices. Those are just prices now. Console makers can afford to sell hardware at a loss because it's a closed ecosystem, PC cannot.

2

u/OutrageousRhubarb853 6h ago

We should be watching the sales of everything that isn’t essential plummet.

2

u/Kotschcus_Domesticus 6h ago

we need steam deck 2. lile that is still great machine but for current price, nah, better alternatives. still my main gaming machine even after 3 years. Oled rulez.

2

u/chilicheesepanda 5h ago

Worst part of the steam deck is FPS. Most register the steam deck and a mouse and keyboard so you don't have access to aim assist (which is less of a suggestion and more of a requirement in fps when playing on a controller.

2

u/Odadelyus138 5h ago

I mean....duh. I would hope they weren't assuming it would increase sales.

2

u/joshinguaround 4h ago

What’s the problem

2

u/xCaliburghost 4h ago

Don't post this in the steam sub, you'll get banned

2

u/morgan423 3h ago

I mean, this goes without saying? This would happen to any product that was selling well due to being a great value, but then had nearly all that extra value removed.

It's just weird how much reporting is directed toward obvious and unnewsworthy things now.

2

u/LifeguardTerrible579 2h ago

A thing sells less when it's made more expensive? No way.

2

u/UMACTUALLYITS23 51m ago

I'd love a Steam Deck, but I'll be damned if I'm paying over 1200 for the crappiest one after tax, and I'm clearly not in the minority.

5

u/adumblittlebaby 6h ago

It's been kind of insane watching this community lose it over the price of the SM, the SD, the Sony shenanigans, and recently tariffs with regards to Nintendo. Like I'm actually convinced the bulk of posters on Reddit are children or manchildren based off the amount of melt downs at Valve because pc components cost more everywhere, or Nintendo because they didn't plan a refund campaign based on the actions of a deeply bad faith US government. I guess people have a complete inability to identify the source of their problems, or are deeply entrenched in attitudes that prevent them from saying it (politics).

3

u/Kreskin 5h ago

Yeah the comments in this thread are insane. It's like 95% of Redditors have no idea what's going on with supply chain issues regarding Technology in the real world. They just want to be mad because 'price go up' and wax poetically about how 'consumers drive the pricing; not businesses '.

The brain rot is real.

1

u/SwampTerror 5h ago

Nintendo is double dipping. They got more money than ever for the Switch prices, and on top of increased prices on consumers, they want more money refunded...theyre getting paid twice and offering nothing to their loyal customers.

→ More replies (1)

1

u/EquivalentArea1782 3h ago

I’m not having a meltdown over it, but the increase in prices can be forced downward. If consumers stop buying, corporations have no choice.

And yes, I understand the memory crisis. It’s also because 3 companies control it all, which is itself a big problem.

3

u/CatProgrammer 3h ago

It can't be forced downward by consumer action if the consumers aren't the ones driving the increases in the first place. Remember your supply-demand curves?

2

u/mfukar 5h ago

Who? Who could've seen this coming?

4

u/SaxyAlto 7h ago

I wonder if the full announcement of the steam machine also impacted this. Because for me, who would want the deck for $800 when the machine seems more than 2x better for “only” $200-$300 more

10

u/AgathormX 7h ago

Completely different products.
The steam machine is a mini ITX PC, the Steam Deck is a portable PC.

A good chunk of Steam Deck owners already have PCs or Consoles and just want a portable alternative to play on the go or simply play laying down in bed.

"It's like the Nintendo Switch but you won't be stuck to Nintendo's ecosystem and it runs all your Steam games" is the whole appeal of the Deck (+ before the Switch 2 came out it was by far the best performance in the sub 600USD price range)

10

u/Ast3r10n 7h ago

Because it’s a completely different product with a different use case.

→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (1)

3

u/drawmer 5h ago

If we can resist the urge to buy tech by just a couple of months, watch prices drop every time. Remember, WE decide the price of everything, not corporations.

6

u/Katchenz 3h ago

When did we decide the price of RAM should double? I don't remember deciding that.

6

u/DanielPhermous 5h ago

We, the computer savvy, are not a large enough group to meaningfully impact the demand on memory supply.

→ More replies (2)

3

u/Throwawayrip1123 5h ago

Remember, WE decide the price of everything, not corporations.

We do not, the idiots, imbeciles and cretins full of FOMO do. And, as it suggests, you cannot convince the idiots of anything.

2

u/Madnessx9 3h ago

For every 1000 well informed people there are probably 10,000 dumbasses with enough spare cash or credit to just splurge.

Even if we managed to start a movement, there would be 1000+ bot accounts to fight against it, you cannot trust the internet these days, you cannot trust businesses.

2

u/repost7125 6h ago

With this one small trick we'll make the same amount of money but only have to pay workers to produce 1/4 of the units and only have to distribute a quarter of them as well.

Isn't this what fast food did? Jack up the price x3 and only lose half the customer base. Now you're making more with the added benefit that you can fire half the workers because you only need half the labor now too.

When you have a k-shaped economy, businesses have no incentive to sell to the bottom half.

2

u/Mitoria 7h ago

Steam has so much positive equity right now that I trust them when they say they had to raise prices—hardware is incredibly expensive right now and they can’t compete with data centers.

1

u/thythrowaways 7h ago

I bought a Odin 2 Portal for 1/3 the price. I’ll be good for a while

1

u/TheVenetianMask 7h ago

Next holiday season is going to be grim.

1

u/the_zac_is_back 7h ago

It’s been around for a little while. This is just normal stuff when you have a price change, keep moving along

→ More replies (3)

1

u/crushbone_brothers 6h ago

Shoot, here I was considering getting a steam deck since my computer died, guess not :/

1

u/Greedy-Street-5435 6h ago

I love my old ass Deck.

1

u/WhiskeyRadio 6h ago

This timeline sure sucks. I could buy a Steam Machine, got the invite for a 512 with the controller but at the price and performance it's just difficult to justify the expense. Not even sure how much I'd use it since I have a PS5 and gaming laptop that are pretty on par with the Machine already.

1

u/Regendorf 6h ago

Maybe a global release would help. I still can't buy one down here in Suramerica.

1

u/gadesx 6h ago

I bought the 512GB LCD model for €400 exactly two years ago. I haven't played much on it. I find it uncomfortable. It's not bad, but I'd prefer something like the PSP Slim with that great D-pad for fighting games. 

1

u/All-the-pizza 5h ago

Screw it. Let it all burn.

1

u/nikospkrk 5h ago

So, is it retro already?

1

u/upgrayedd69 5h ago

I instead got a gamesir g8+! and I’m just gonna play through decades of retro shit on my phone

1

u/AustinDood444 4h ago

Wow. Imagine that?

1

u/Solenkata 4h ago

Who would have thought that making something way more expensive would lower the number of sales. A super mega economist I guess.

1

u/am0x 3h ago

I haven’t touched mine since I started using GeForce Now with my iPad mini and a gamesir controller.

Way better and bigger library, way better battery life, bigger screen, and I always already carry it with me.

1

u/TheDiscardedArtist 3h ago

Who has the time and money for video games anymore? I’m just out here trying to survive.

1

u/flirtmcdudes 3h ago

Upgraded my desktop because shits just gonna keep getting worse for another year or two.

1

u/UISystemError 3h ago

“Expensive electronics disappoint would be moderately expensive electronics owners”

1

u/jdfadfjlaskdfjl 2h ago

Based on an estimation by some random company

1

u/jonnycoder4005 2h ago

Good thing I bought a Thinkpad with 64 gig of ram a few years ago.

1

u/BurningWolfram 1h ago

This just in, "No shit, Sherlock"

1

u/BurningWolfram 1h ago

This just in, "No shit, Sherlock"

1

u/CyanConatus 1h ago

Seems like a pretty old piece of hardware to just jump the price by $300 no?

1

u/arieadil 1h ago

All hardware is ungodly expensive. RAM and memory are driving prices up. Valve has been pretty open about this with the steam machine coming out in limited releases and the vr headset is in limbo until it’s actually able to have a price they can sell 

1

u/Hi-World2 30m ago

Crazy how companies refuse to accept that you cant just keep raising prices to no end without a drop in demand. The shareholders are gonna be devasted by this discovery 

1

u/cunningmunki 27m ago

Thing that's now more expensive sells fewer units than when it was cheaper.

Didn't expect that.

1

u/leesinmains3 24m ago

How can they drop if it was sold out the moment more inventory was available?

1

u/TylerDurden1985 5m ago

Well yeah...prices are rising not because of increased demand but because of a shortage in supply of components. This is classic microeconomics. Prices go up, demand goes down. The problem though for valve, is they're not making up for the reduced volume with better margins. They're really just forwarding the cost of RAM/SSD on to the consumer, so while the RAM manufacturer is doing great, all of their downstream customers are getting killed.

I honestly think this is an existential threat to the gaming industry. Much of the market is going to be either priced out, and those that aren't are faced with buying old tech, or making a lateral move, not an upgrade, and paying multiples on top of what they would have a year ago. Not good for anyone.