As expected, one of the last holdouts for the sweeping RAMageddon price increases has bit the bullet: The Valve Steam Deck OLED. Ripping the Band-aid off, the price for the 512gb OLED model is moving from $549 to $789 and the 1tb OLED model is increasing from $649 to $949. This console was also notably out of stock officially for months, and it’s clear why since more units became readily available immediately following the price increase.
The 70% price increase is more egregious because of the cost of 16gb of DDR5 RAM and the high speed 2230 NVMe SSDs used in the deck. This is unfortunately par for the course for high end x86 devices in the current market and it’s still technically one of the cheapest options amongst the $900 ROG Ally and the $1000 Xbox Ally X, but now signifigantly more expensive then the $500 (As of right now) standard Xbox Ally.
What About Refurbished?
There’s good news and bad news. Good news: Refurbished 1TB OLED and 64GB/256GB LCD models are in stock! Bad news: The 1tb OLED is $759. The 512gb OLED is out of stock currently, but is posted for $629. Look, $630 for the OLED model might be tempting… but the 256gb LCD model is only $319 right now. Yes, its refurbished. But it also has a warranty and return policy and still a 2024 esque ‘Good deal in gaming’.
About the Steam Machine…
We already knew that Valve was holding off on the release of the Steam Machine due to the RAM situation and the cursed phrase “Market Conditions”. Since it appears that scarcity and AI development is projected to be a non-short term issue, and Valve has yielded to the demands of the market for the Steam Deck, the Steam Machines release window is probably at hand… and the price might be even higher than we thought.
In our recent coverage for the Steam Machine, we alluded to the possibility of a $700 – $800 price point if we are going spec-per-spec and part-for-part. That was a week ago, and now we are looking at a $949 Steam Deck and a more powerful Steam Machine. I think Valve will be asking the whole $1000 for the Steam Machine. It’s only a matter of time before 2026s biggest gaming mystery will come to light.
Prices are whack lately, and whose paying them? Would you pay upwards of $1000 to get into the Valve ecosystem of consoles? Sound off in the comments, and check out our website for more positive content like this robot Zu bought to mow his lawn.
