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.
  • melfie@lemmy.zipEnglish
    2 hours

    I got a Steam Deck LCD 64GB for $350 and then put a 1TB SSD in it, so like $430 total. I love the SD, but it’s just not worth double that. A gaming laptop with a 4050 goes for about $800 now, so the current pricing isn’t really that good of a deal even at today’s prices.

  • Geldaran@lemmy.worldEnglish
    56 minutes

    This may be my pessimism talking, but I feel like PC and Console gaming are probably both going the same route as Disney Theme Parks. If you have to ask how much it costs… If you aren’t willing to blindly shell out too much for too little… Gaming won’t be for you anymore. When it boils down to it, these things are luxuries. They’ve found their latest “limited production” excuse (AI gobbling up SSD, GPU, and RAM production) to pump up cost and there’s definitely excess demand. Or at least enough scalpers willing to take that risk. Sure the cost spike will probably come back down some once the bubble pops, but if they keep selling out, then why would they ever lower the price again?

  • PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2 hours

    I’m so happy I got a white limited edition one off marketplace for 650 last week. Sold my LCD for 400 so it wasn’t a bad upgrade for the price.

  • RxBrad@infosec.pubEnglish
    4 hours

    People are now conditioned to need INSTANT GRATIFICATION FOR EVERYTHING ALWAYS!

    “I want a Steam Deck! I can’t actually afford these new prices! I’m buying it anyways!”

    Then retailers see the insane prices people pay for stuff without blinking. Steam Decks sell out after a 40% markup. RAM & SSDs & HDDs sell out at 4x what they sold for a year ago. So the prices never go back down.

    And everyone goes full surprised-Pikachu-face when everything is now always goddamn expensive.

    Show some fucking restraint for once, people!

    Goddamn.

    • badgermurphy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3 hours

      As we have seen, they won’t and never will. This is arguing for gravity to stop pulling so hard.

      The mechanism to fix the problem you’re describing has broken long ago and everyone stopped trying to fix it. Your money needs more choices of where to be spent, then businesses will force each other to price things reasonably. If anyone can name all the companies that make a type of product, then that is not enough companies.

      • brucethemoose@lemmy.worldEnglish
        23 minutes

        I posit it’s a consumer culture issue.

        Look at Temo, Tiktok, Amazon, YouTube; people are bombarded with “buy this on impulse!” every day, 24/7, through notifications. They’re urged to buy high by dozens of influencers they’re bombarded with.

        So they do.

        And now that’s the culture. Competition isn’t going to fix that, and doesn’t naturally arise in that kind of environment anyway.

      • RxBrad@infosec.pubEnglish
        3 hours

        The thing is… I’m lucky enough to be able to afford all of this. In part, because I avoid terrible-value purchases. When the price of something goes up 40 to 400% percent, I say to myself, “Wow, it’d be really stupid to buy that thing RIGHT NOW.”

        Too many people apparently lack that critical judgment, and just have FOMO in its place.

    • KatherinaReichelt@feddit.orgEnglish
      3 hours

      People really underestimate how much money other people have. $950 is expensive, but there are so many people out there who can afford that.

    • omarfw@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3 hours

      Our economy has been running on debt for a long time now, and debt is a bottomless pit.

      Also I speculate that these were almost definitely picked up mostly by scalpers.

  • sophie_talks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3 hours

    Half these “sold out” stories don’t tell you if it was 500 units or 50. Supply was already a mess before the price hike … AI ate the RAM market and now everything downstream pays for it. The device is great, the timing is just bad.

  • Lazer365@feddit.nlEnglish
    4 hours

    I love the Steam Deck, but it’s definitely not worth $1000. That’s absolutely ridiculous. I guess I’m going to find a new hobby, gaming is becoming way too expensive.

    • JcbAzPx@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 minutes

      There’s countless good games that work on older equipment. You could play for the rest of your life on just that slightly older stuff and not get through half of it.

    • Noodle07@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4 hours

      Gaming can be very cheap, you dont need to spend thousands to start gaming, you need to in specific settings

      • chiliedogg@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1 hour

        Tell that to devs. Motherfucking Slay the Spire 2 runs like dogshit on my 1st-gen ROG Ally.

    • daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      3 hours

      Most games do not need expensive hardware.

      Last month I bought a retro handheld for 30 bucks. It can play all the existing catalogue of consoles up to PS1, and also pico8, tic-80, and small pc games via portainer.

  • rose56@lemmy.zipEnglish
    2 hours

    So ign is trying to makes us buy the expensive Steam desk, thanks no bro.

  • mlg@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9 hours

    I wonder if this just means the supply was really low.

    Considering the current ebay pricing, it doesn’t really make sense for any scalper to buy it unless they think it will become some weird coveted collectors item.

    Either way rip steam machine. I hope they continue to fund Proton and Lepton because it really made a massive impact for gaming on Linux.

    • Zetta@mander.xyzEnglish
      4 hours

      There are millions of ‘gamers’ in the usa who are well off financially, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if it was a normal size shipment and people genuinely just were fiening for it

  • GeneralEmergency@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4 hours

    Well yeah.

    It’s got the Steam logo on it.

    G*mers have been brainwashed to accept anything with that on it.

    • Zink@programming.devEnglish
      2 hours

      I am as disgusted with consumer marketing and advertising as anybody, but sometimes the logo or the brand on something CAN be a positive sign if it indicates the product comes from a company that has earned the trust they have.

      I don’t have a Steam Deck and probably never will. However, I am glad to see it being popular if for no other reason than what Valve and the Deck have contributed to gaming on Linux.

      I will probably get their VR headset though, whenever that comes out.

    • Soup@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3 hours

      The Steam Deck is objectively excellent, what the hell are you talking about? Yea, that’s way more expensive that it was only a few years ago and people need to not accept the price, but still.

    • mursejoy@lemmy.zipEnglish
      12 hours

      I’m not a scalper so idk what is normal, but I wouldn’t think it would be smart to buy something $300 over face value in an attempt to resell it for more? Especially hardware that is already long in the tooth internally. Aaaand from Valve who typically has consistently restocked these over time.

      Idk though maybe there is a market for $1300 SD OLED resellers 🤷‍♂️

      • TAG@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8 hours

        Used Decks were priced very far above MSRP on Facebook Marketplace a couple weeks ago. I assume that means that the demand is there.

        • mursejoy@lemmy.zipEnglish
          7 hours

          That’s awful. I wish valve would limit it to one per account and just be done with it.

      • perviouslyiner@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8 hours

        If you search the old ones on ebay, the scalpers all have photos with a room full of steamdeck boxes

      • RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.worldEnglish
        10 hours

        Anything to create scarcity in the market. If they can buy high and sell it to some idiot that pays higher, thats all they care about.