Valve raises Steam Deck OLED prices by more than 40%

Valve has raised Steam Deck OLED prices by more than 40%, citing component costs as buyers face higher prices across gaming hardware.

Valve has raised the price of its Steam Deck OLED handhelds by more than 40%, saying the hardware has not changed but the cost of key components has risen.

The 512GB version of the OLED handheld gaming PC will now cost $789 (£649, €779), a 43% increase, or £170 more than before. The larger 1TB model will cost $949 (£779, €919), up 46%, or £210.

The increase matters for buyers because Valve no longer sells its cheaper LCD Steam Deck models directly. Customers purchasing from Valve are now limited to the OLED line, which was introduced in November 2023 as a major revision of the original model with an upgraded display.

In a blog post, Valve said the Steam Deck itself had not changed and that the new prices reflected “the current state of component costs and other global logistical challenges across the industry as a whole.” The company also cited “rising memory and storage costs.”

The newer OLED models had been out of stock for months before the price announcement, adding to frustration among some would-be buyers. One disappointed gamer quoted by the BBC wrote: “There goes my hopes of ever getting an OLED.”

The Steam Deck rise comes as gaming companies face higher costs for hardware and services. Recent industry increases have been linked to tariffs, inflation and shortages of RAM, a type of memory used in computing devices. RAM prices have also been pushed up by demand from the data centres used to power artificial intelligence systems.

Sony raised the price of the PlayStation 5 in March by £90 in the UK and by $100 in the US, citing pressure in the global economy. It also increased PlayStation Plus subscription prices in some regions, pointing to market conditions.

Nintendo has announced that the Switch 2 price will rise globally from September, moving from $449.99 to $499.99 in the US and from €469.99 to €499.99 in most European countries. A revised UK price has not yet been confirmed.

Xbox has moved in the opposite direction on one subscription, lowering the price of Game Pass while removing day-one access to new Call of Duty games.

Valve’s price move is also drawing attention because of the company’s anticipated Steam Machine gaming PC, which still has no confirmed release date or price. Chris Scullion, deputy editor of Video Games Chronicle, told the BBC that component pressures could make the Steam Machine expensive to manufacture, potentially affecting whether Valve releases it soon or waits for costs to ease.

For now, Valve has confirmed only the Steam Deck OLED price increases, not any change to the device itself. The next question for buyers is whether stock returns at the new prices — and whether broader component pressures keep pushing gaming hardware costs higher.