Valve announces significant Steam Deck price rise of almost £200 in the UK, over 40% around the world

"These new prices reflect the current state of component costs and other global logistical challenges."

Valve has announced a substantial price increase for its Steam Deck OLED models, citing "rising memory and storage costs" as the reason.

In the UK, Valve's lower-tier 512GB Steam Deck OLED model has increased from £479 to £649. Meanwhile, the chunkier 1TB Steam Deck OLED model will increase from £569 to £779. Pricings for other regions can be found below.

• Steam Deck OLED 512GB: Now $789 USD; CAD 1,129; EUR 779; AUD 1,199; PLN 3,279
• Steam Deck OLED 1TB: Now $949 USD; CAD 1,349; EUR 919; AUD 1,429; PLN 3,879

Valve stated the Steam Deck itself has not changed, and rather "these new prices reflect the current state of component costs and other global logistical challenges across the industry as a whole".

The price of RAM - the quick access source of memory in a computer - has skyrocketed over recent months. In fact, back in November of last year, some shops stopped printing price labels so they could alter the prices daily. This rising cost has led to memory shortages, and in April, head of Xbox Asha Sharma admitted this could in turn lead to a price bump and limited stock where its next-gen console, Project Helix, is concerned. Meanwhile, in February, Valve was forced to revise its plans for its Steam Machine and Steam Frame hardware due to global memory and storage shortages caused by massive demand from tech giants going all-in on AI data centres.

Valve isn't the only company to have increased the price of its current hardware recently. In February, Sony announced a shock price rise for its PlayStation 5 family of consoles, citing "continued pressures in the global economic landscape" as the reason for the changes. Earlier this month, Nintendo also announced a price increase for the Switch 2, and similarly said the "recent surge in memory and other component prices" was a major factor in its decision.

Image credit: Valve

As for the future, Valve has still not set a retail price for its Steam Machine, and there are now concerns within the gaming community about its affordability. The Steam Machine is a console/PC hybrid which will be able to run PC games on a television or as a normal gaming computer. In November, Valve's Lawrence Yang and Pierre-Loup Griffais briefly discussed the pricing, and said the Steam Machine will be "more in line with what you might expect from [the] current PC market". Given how much the company's handheld Steam Deck now costs, though, it is safe to say that its console-like device will not come cheap.

For more on this subject, be sure to check out Bertie's feature: "It's a perfect storm of unpreparedness, panic, and greed" - RAM prices are soaring, so what does it mean for gaming?