The Steam Deck is again, and reasonably priced PC gaming is useless

The Steam Deck, harbinger of a transportable PC gaming revolution, has been out of inventory for 3 months. Now it’s again… at nearly double the value of the unique mannequin. It’ll value you $789 USD to get the 512GB OLED model, $949 for the 1TB improve. The authentic LCD mannequin, which debuted at $400, is resigned to the dustbin of historical past.

Welcome to PC gaming in 2026, the place the Okay-shaped economic system has claimed the final remaining reasonably priced possibility. The 512GB OLED mannequin now prices $1,129 in Canada, 649 kilos within the UK, 779 euro in Europe, $1,199 in Australia, and three,279 PLN in Poland. The 1TB OLED model prices 1,349 CAD/919 euro/779 kilos/1,429 dollarydoos/3,879 PLN. Ouch.

Remember, all of those are utilizing AMD built-in laptop computer graphics from the Zen 2 technology, now six years previous. I don’t assume anybody would disagree with me after I say that almost a thousand bucks is an excessive amount of to pay for the efficiency you get right here.

Valve calls a spade a spade in its announcement publish. “Steam Deck is back in stock, with a price increase for both models due to rising memory and storage costs.” We’ve seen related will increase for different {hardware} just like the Lenovo Legion Go sequence, which now prices nearly a thousand US {dollars} for the “affordable” Go S mannequin that ships with SteamOS as a substitute of Windows.

The rush on RAM and storage as chip producers prioritize worthwhile “AI” knowledge facilities has left each shoppers and PC producers with few choices however to pay, pay, pay. While reminiscence costs appear to have hit a plateau — not less than for now — it’s turn out to be primarily not possible to construct a desktop PC that may deal with the newest AAA video games for beneath $1,000 or so. We’re in a traditionally unusual place the place trying to find a reduction on a pre-built machine may get you vital financial savings versus a DIY construct, as consumer-packaged RAM has been hit the toughest.

Valve is a big firm, a juggernaut within the gaming house… nevertheless it’s not resistant to a worldwide rush that has chip producers booked up for months or years. The similar RAM disaster has pushed the corporate’s new {hardware} initiatives, the console-style Steam Machine with its discrete GPU and the Meta Quest-style Steam Frame VR headset, to an unsure “late 2026” timeline. The greatest query from the Steam Machine’s announcement final yr continues to be probably the most urgent one — how a lot will it value? A value beneath $1,000 appears all however not possible at this level.

We’re beginning to see not less than a little bit of market correction. Memory producers that previously served the home Chinese market solely have an opportunity to go worldwide, as Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron ignore shopper PCs and different electronics. At least a number of Corsair RAM modules are actually delivery with reminiscence produced by CXMT, although it seems to be like these merchandise are nonetheless being offered solely in China in the mean time.

I really feel like a damaged document right here, however as soon as once more, the one actual hope of aid for RAM and storage costs is that if the “AI” bubble pops. And there are indicators of that occuring, as knowledge heart building begins to fulfill sharp opposition, from each close by residents (who object to respiratory fuel fumes and tripled energy payments for the sake of a dozen low-paid jobs) and politicians representing them. But with large parts of the economic system principally holding on to the “AI” bubble for expensive life, that situation would include its personal extra issues.