This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Valve Corp. has raised Steam Deck prices by more than 40%, adding another pressure point for investors tracking how the memory and storage chip crunch is moving through consumer hardware. The 512-gigabyte Steam Deck OLED now sells for $789, up from $549, while the 1-terabyte model has climbed to $949, a $300 increase from its original price. Before the increase, the Steam Deck had often been out of stock on Valve’s online store, with the company pointing to memory and storage shortages as the reason behind limited supply.
The OLED models are now back in stock at higher prices, with delivery estimates of three to five business days. But the bigger signal may be what Valve has not priced yet: its upcoming Steam Machine gaming console, announced in November, remains without a disclosed price as chip-cost volatility continues to complicate hardware planning. Valve released its $99 Steam Controller in early May, though availability details for the Steam Machine and Steam Frame VR headset have still not been shared.
For investors, this looks like another sign that component inflation could keep reshaping the gaming hardware market. Between higher component costs and earlier US-imposed tariffs, gamers are seeing price increases across consoles and handheld devices. Nintendo Co. (NTDOY) plans to raise the price of its Switch 2 console to $500 starting Sept. 1, following Sony Group Corp. (NYSE:SONY) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), which have already increased prices for their consoles after several years on the market. Lenovo Group Ltd. also lifted prices on its Legion Go handheld gaming PCs by hundreds of dollars last month, suggesting the pressure may be spreading across much of the category.