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This month I’ve been: Inducting my daughter into a lifetime of crime in Magical Princess, and developing cozily cluttered dioramas in Shanty Town—two video games I’m assured would even be unbelievable on a handheld.
The thought of taking critical {hardware} horsepower on the go was at all times the dream of my misspent, console-gaming youth. Don’t get me flawed, I’ve at all times beloved how older handheld methods made a calling card out of their limitations (and within the case of Nintendo, provided a {hardware} gimmick or gaming expertise you could not discover wherever else). The indisputable fact that now you may play lots of the similar video games on a conveyable machine you can additionally play in your gamer den would’ve blown my youthful self’s thoughts.
Unfortunately, the dream-come-true of handheld gaming PCs seems like it’s coming to an finish.
The memory supply crisis has raised the pricing floor of all handhelds. Case in point, the device that we still rate as the best budget handheld gaming PC is the Steam Deck. The more affordable LCD models were quietly discontinued last year, leaving those looking to buy a Steam Deck new with only the very shiny OLED models to choose from. Years after release, the price for the base 512 GB OLED model has increased from $549 to $789. The 1 TB model has seen an almost 50% price increase, jumping from $649 to $949. The answer, then, to where that leaves the more budget-conscious? Without a paddle.
Despite this price hike (and the handheld’s aged internals), both models of the Steam Deck sold out in North America shortly after the increase was announced back in May. The 1 TB model, which is going for £779 where I’m based in the UK, appears to be out of stock again at the time of writing. But I doubt this is a sustainable trend.
Let’s zoom out a smidge. I update our best SSD deals every week, so I’ve not had the luxury of ignoring how storage prices have been climbing since the tail end of last year. Research suggests that memory prices are likely to rise as much as 50% in Q3 alone. Recent analysis by Bernstein suggests prices won’t dip until 2028, when major manufacturers are expected to complete a number of capacity-increasing builds.
But here and now in 2026, it’s not just gaming PC components that have seen price increases as a result of the memory supply crisis. For example, the Playstation 5 has seen three different price increases over the last six years and now costs a minimum of $650. I’ve written about it before but, despite buying a launch day PS5, it’s becoming increasingly unlikely I’ll pick up a PS6 day one. After all, if the PS5 Pro costs $900 today, how much more will the PS6 cost?
Hey, maybe Bernstein’s predictions will bear out and hardware pricing will look a lot more sensible by the time Sony’s next-gen console drops in 2028 or even 2029. But in the here and now, handheld gaming PCs remain in an arguably much more difficult position within the consumer market.
For those who don’t already have a gaming PC, there’s little doubt that a $650 base PS5 is going to look like the more economical option (particularly as Sony won’t be bringing its handful of exclusives to PC in future, but maybe it’s just me mourning the loss of, like, four games). If you already own a gaming PC, you’ll likely want to save your pennies for increasingly expensive component upgrades. Where would a handheld feature in either budget?
The data suggests gamers generally are still willing to part with the cash for new hardware—though they aren’t necessarily picking up a handheld gaming PC. A recent Circana report shared that the handheld of choice was overwhelmingly the Nintendo Switch 2, with the hybrid console largely credited for a year-over-year hardware spending increase that grew by 69%, climbing to $500 million this previous March.
The Switch 2 noticed its personal worth improve introduced again in May, so it is price pondering how a lot of this current shopper clamour was motivated by a need to scoop the console earlier than it turned costlier. Even so, Nintendo’s handheld is ready to price $500 from September 1 within the US.
There are loads of PC players who’ve little interest in what the large N is doing as of late, however a broad-view of immediately’s gaming viewers suggests a variety of players are extra platform-agnostic. For occasion, a 2023 Comscore report discovered 76% of gamers play across multiple platforms. Therefore, it is exhausting to disregard handheld gaming PC’s most evident competitor, even when the Switch 2 is underpowered in comparison with lots of the accessible transportable gaming choices.
In quick, probably the most performant handheld gaming PCs ask a worth that is far too wealthy for my blood, and the most effective price range possibility is arguably not fairly as compelling as Nintendo’s providing (even after the value hike comes into impact later this 12 months).
To paraphrase Andy’s level, there’s an opportunity gaming handhelds ultimately revert to occupying a boutique area of interest for players with particularly deep pockets. That’s how they have been within the earlier than instances previous to the Steam Deck’s launch, with smaller Chinese outfits, similar to OneXPlayer, releasing costly, weak, poorly optimised units. That’s not likely the longer term I would like for handheld gaming PCs, but it surely’s a robust chance. However, given the state of, effectively, every thing, I discover myself taking a bleaker outlook.
The most performant handheld gaming PCs ask a worth that is far too wealthy for my blood, and the most effective price range possibility is arguably not fairly as compelling as Nintendo’s providing.
In the long run, it does not really feel like handheld gaming PCs are probably the most economical proposition for manufacturers or producers both. For instance, again in March Ayaneo suspended pre-orders for its uber-powerful Next 2 gaming handheld after prices approached ‘twice the value we initially set’. To be clear, I strongly doubt Valve goes to pack it in with the Steam Deck any time quickly. However, smaller firms with a a lot much less numerous portfolio than, say, the corporate behind one of many largest storefronts for digital video games, are prone to battle.
What appears sure is that costs will proceed to rise and significant chunks of the units’ viewers will likely be priced out. My concern is that the maths might merely now not math, and {hardware} firms will more and more determine that handheld gaming PCs particularly simply aren’t price it. For my wide-eyed youthful self, I hope I’m flawed.
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