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Steam has finally announced the Deck’s restock, but with the catch of bringing a price increase to the OLED models. Stating the cause of it as the price increase of both storage and RAM, thanks to the AI boom and the shortage of hardware. That does make the handheld a lot harder to recommend now, considering it’s not exactly a value pick anymore.
With this update, the pricing of the 512GB model is up 43%, and the 1TB model is up 46%, as they are now priced at $749 USD and $949 USD, respectively. That is a rather large increase and does make it less appealing for the lower-powered portable device. It does put it closer to some of the premium options like the Ally X, but I’d also expect to see their prices increase.
What this means for the Steam Machine #
What this also spells out for the Steam Machine is quite worrying. With the release of the Machine first slated for early 2026, there seem to be delays due to the shortage already. So, building up stock and having to buy more expensive hardware to build it, we can expect the price to increase even more.
Brad Lynch over on X has suggested, taken with a grain of salt, that the Steam Machine pricing was already going to be higher than the new Steam Deck’s pricing. Easily putting it into the four figures, which, for a Steam product, makes it a rather expensive option.
Considering the Machine was meant to be a PC with better performance than most of the gaming PCs on Steam’s hardware survey, it will put it at a very high price as a result. Which might just be enough for most people to not even consider buying, as it’s out of budget for most. Especially when you consider the whole market behavior with a lot less buying shown by Gamer’s Nexus’s documentary going around plenty of manufacturers and their sales figures.