damn shame. the Deck remains a wonderful device that's plenty powerful for the vast, vast majority of games out there.
I am so damn glad I got the special smoky translucent 1tb OLED when I did. It's served me and my husband very well for gaming and media PC duties, and if push comes to shove I could sell it for more than I bought it for.
I don't envy anyone looking to buy into PC gaming right now, though, that's for damn sure.
I'm going to hold off purchasing gaming hardware for as long as possible, the market is simply ridiculous right now.
... Is that why it sold out immediately and continues to be out of stock?
I had been waiting to get one until I could afford it… fuck me right?
It doesn't help that the hardware is also quite dated. If they release a more powerful version this at least would justify the price increase to some point, but with the current HW, it is a hard no for me.
Not really surprising, when the price goes up for an old device. Its not like consoles that the Steam Deck would be the only way to play PC and Steam games, let alone all the competition on the market for handheld PC devices. On top of it, the availability wasn't guaranteed either.
It is what it is.
Hopefully they'll be able to release half-life 3 at a regular price when the time comes
I got my LCD Steam Deck in April 2025 for $400 in reaction to Nintendo's Switch 2 reveal being so terrible at the time. Times change. Valve charging $300 more for the SD spooked me and I got a Switch 2 while it's still $450. I figured I won't getting any more gaming hardware for a long time, so I might as well get the last decently affordable console for the foreseeable future. In retrospect, getting that SD was the best timed gaming purchase I ever made.
The Steam Deck should already have been undesirable compared to the more capable rivals that have launched since. The OLED has a brilliant screen but the whole package is just far too bulky in my opinion. I bought a 1TB OLED Deck at the start of the year and returned it immediately and bought a used ROG Ally for half the price.
I coudnt afford my steam deck today. Honestly.
So glad I bought my Deck OLED back in 2022 2023. Might be my first, last and only gaming rig at this point.
I believe it was Plato who once said "Fuck Nintendo".
To be fair the Steam Defck being pumped in price puts it on the level of a Ally X, which has better hardware, and I suspect most who wanted a Deck are capable of installing their own OS on better hardware for the same price...
Plus a 2280 slot so if SSD prices are ever sane again you can drop 8TB + 2TB on a sd card in it instead of the horrible overpriced tiny storage slot Valve used. To be fair ASUS did the same with the Flow, and the original Ally, but enough people complained they changed it for the new model.
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