Steam Deck gets an insane price hike that makes Sony’s PS5 raise look generous

In case you were wondering which gaming megacorp was going to come along next and bend you over if you dared to want to purchase something from them, it’s Valve.

Having already had severe price rises on Nintendo and Sony gaming hardware, despite literally billions of profit last year, Valve’s Steam Deck has now fallen foul of those vague, nebulous economic pressures that giant corporations use as a reason for prices to go north once anybody drops a bomb anywhere.

When er, global things, start, er, thinging in the games industry we don’t even get the mealy-mouthed excuses the food industry gives us. The, “we are unfortunately going to have to pass some of the cost onto our consumers.”

Nope, in gaming hardware it’s more of an “in your face nerds!” Suck up this rise.

The Steam Deck is going up by around £200 in the UK and 40% worldwide. That is insanity for a company that is estimated to have made over three billion in profit last year.

Valve says the increase is down to “rising memory and storage costs” along with wider “global logistical challenges across the industry.” That second part means absolutely nothing yet we keep hearing and accepting it.

There’s not even an apology as we got from Nintendo. No sense of “we’re in this together.” Just a matter-of-fact statement saying you can buy the OLED model again, but this is the new price. Add to basket. Quick, before it goes out of stock again. And the sad thing is, some of you probably will.

Of course, the world we live in dares not see profit margins go down. Not profit but profit INCREASE year on year. There will be no hit taken on behalf of the loyal, even if these companies can easily afford it. For context, Nintendo’s estimated profits last year were $2.7 billion. PlayStation? $3.3 billion.

How much profit did you make?

Maths is not my strong point, but in 2025, the Steam Deck was expected to sell under two million units, so let’s assume less in 2026. Let’s conservatively say 1.75 million units. Throw in the extra £200 for each sale, and that is a revenue of £350 million (around $470 million). That’s a lot of money (although half the year is over, so we can’t really work in the normal calendar, because let’s face it, the price will never drop again, regardless of global conditions).

However, it’s 15% of the PROFIT last year, while you get gut-punched for wanting nice things.

That $470 million revenue is not profit for Valve, they aren’t pumping the price to make more money (I assume), but they are inflating the price so they don’t lose the levels of profit they have enjoyed, or if they do, not by much. These aren’t companies that need to inflate a price to survive here. They have enjoyed years of rich pickings from consumers.

They continue to push costs onto consumers, we are letting them do it, and we need to stop.

I know it’s not as simple as that makes it all sound, but we need to stop elevating these companies to an adoration level and letting them raise prices with zero pushback. Where does it stop? A $1000 console? You know it will be just around the corner. At least when you buy the games, you own them forever though… oh.

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