The Steam Deck OLED is back in stock, Valve has announced, but its return is not necessarily a cause for celebration, as it returns with a major change. The price has been given a huge increase, with the base 512GB model jumping from its previous $549 USD price tag to a whopping $789. The 1TB model, for its part, has gone up from its previous $649 to $949.
In a blog post, Valve blames the price increase directly on "rising memory and storage costs" while admitting that the handheld PC hasn't changed at all. "These new prices reflect the current state of component costs and other global logistical challenges across the industry as a whole."
It's a massive jump for a handheld PC that is by no means the most powerful device on the market if you're looking to take your PC games with you in a portable fashion, but what's worse is that it signals that players' biggest fear about the Steam Machine will likely come true. That of course being the fact that while the upcoming home PC could be an excellent device, its exorbitant price will turn many hopeful Steam Machine owners away.
Last month, we saw reports that the Steam Machine and Steam Frame had both skyrocketed in price due to memory costs, and it would be naive not to see this price update for a device that is two years old as a sign of what's to come for the next two bits of Valve hardware.
If you want to keep yourself hopeful, you could try convincing yourself that the Steam Deck is getting this increase so that its potential sales can help offset the hit Valve will take when they sell the Steam Machine and Steam Frame at a loss. It's not an impossible scenario, but it would be difficult to imagine either the Steam Machine or the Steam Frame coming in at less than the price of a Steam Deck.
This also, of course, doesn't bode well for the starting price of Steam Deck 2, whenever that arrives, but at least that seems to be far enough out that things could change before Valve is ready to bring it to market. Of course, it's also always possible that things are just far worse by then, too.
In the meantime, if you still want to try and get a Steam Deck for cheaper than most of your rent, the refurbished LCD models have also returned with more stock available for the 64GB, 256GB, and 512GB models. A refurbished 64GB model will run you $279 USD, while the 256GB model is $319, and the 512GB model is $359.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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