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The only good side is that people are gonna replace their machines less often and that developpers might look at making games playable on less powerful hardware.
The gamers who are really in trouble are the ones without a PC, a console or whatever yet. Or the ones with hardware on the verge of failing…
I think it can have benefits for the gaming industry in a way.
In such difficult times, people are still getting rid of perfectly working PC because these don’t have the requirements for Windows 11.
My company gets us a new iPhone every 3 years when we could keep them for way longer.
All of this can be good for Linux and optimisation, even if the situation is clearly not ideal.
developpers might look at making games playable on less powerful hardware
Yes, please let this lead to devs focusing on efficiency again. I don’t need real time physics simulations and “lifelike” facial animations that still haven’t found a way out of the uncanny valley after like two decades.
I want snappy load times, download and install sizes in the tens of gigabytes, not hundreds, consistent frame rates even when there’s a lot going on on the screen. I have more VRAM than God, yet I still get stuttering in some games on high graphics settings. It’s pathetic.
There were rumors that Larian was delaying their internal schedule for the next Divinity game because they decided to spend more time optimizing due to the RAM situation. If that is true then that is good.
The main argument against the idea that the steep price increases in PC consumer hardware will lead to a Future of “everything runs on the cloud” and “the end of personal computing” is that the makers of software that can’t run on the cloud and remain decent (most notably game makers, as proven by the totally failure of things like Stadia) will just target their software the the hardware that’s expected that people will have in 2 - 5 times, which as far as we can tell is “the same hardware as people have now” because only a small fraction of gamers can afford to upgrade.
If people can’t afford upgrading their PCs, software makers can’t afford to demand upgraded computers.
I would even say that the trend towards that predates this shit - in the last decade or so it’s pretty much only AAA games who have been pushing the envelope in terms of hardware whilst increasingly Indie games are targetting lower end hardware.
That’s also good for Linux because, lo-and-behold, Microsoft is one of those software makers who with spectacularly bad timming just put out a main product that demands upgraded computers exactly when it’s way harder for people to afford upgrading their computers.
I love my original 512GB LCD Deck and I’ve been encouraging a lot of people to get one every since it came out.
However… at the current price point it just doesn’t make sense. Right now you can buy Snapdragon 8 Elite handhelds for less than half of a Steam Deck’s price. Or an Ayaneo Konkr Fit with much better specs and almost 2x larger battery for $999.
Everything is getting more expensive, but at this price I couldn’t recommend anyone a Steam Deck with a clear conscience.
yeah I don’t know about buying now but I sure am glad I got one after the first price drop.
Fun gaming machine 2027: N100 Mini-PC with integrated graphics and Linux for playing games like Rimworld.
I got an N150 mini pc for 200 last year
I got an N100 for about €130 last year but the same one with the same amount of memory (which was only 8 GB since that machine is for use as a TV Box + Home NAS combo) is now about €240.
Still way more affordable than the usual game machine with a dedicated graphics card and perfectly fine for many Indie games which are fun and have tons of replayability.
Now, if one want to play the latest God Of War on it, forget about it, though myself I genuinely find something like Rimworld more fun.
I got the one with 16GB or ram.
Samesies! Best purchase ever!
This kinda kills the value proposition of a deck. Its a good machine, but struggles with high end titles. Were the performance or battery life better, I’d have overlooked the price but its still the same machine. A more powerful successor would fit this price point, not the original machine.
As long as alternatives or similar products exist at current prices, the deck will be a hard sell.
I’ve got a Lenovo Legion Go and its superior to the Steam Deck in quite a few ways.
I guess Steam Machine is basically DOA unless they delay for another solid year and a half in hopes the AI bubble pops and the production recovers before their AMD spec becomes dated.
I think it’s more likely that normal processors will start putting the ram stacks on die rather than memory manufacturers start making normal ram again lowering the prices.
Yes.
Three good news for Steam is that Moore’s law died a while back; so the current Steam Machine design will probably still play the majority of all games ever published in two years or in five years.
Still, the AI bubble cannot pop soon enough for my comfort. I want to keep modern conveniences like online shopping, that only continue to work if the vendors don’t vibe code all the trust away.
Holy shit. Just saw this last night and I am SO glad I bought mine in January, fearing the spike in RAM prices.
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What are they supposed to do? RAM and storage prices are hardly factors in Valve’s control
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There goes my chance to own one.
Aaaaaand it’s sold out again: https://www.ign.com/articles/the-steam-deck-is-sold-out-again-even-after-the-huge-price-rise
So the frame is either gonna be two grand or just cancelled I guess lmao.
How could steam do this to gabe?
I just…
Its such a weird place to be in life to have bought technology years ago and to have it be more valuable now than it used to be. I don’t think I’d would have bought a steam deck at this pricepoint, whereas I bought two at the lower price point (the LED, then the OLED)
My laptop is worth more than i bought it 3 years ago. Strange world.
Wait until that imbecile will let China take over Taiwan.
Turns out I should have bought an OLED even though I already had the first version…
Protip, anything you want, just in general - get it “now”. Especially if you’re in the US, there will never be a better time. We’ve not yet begun to feel the supply chain impacts from Iran. Shit’s fucked, it’s not slowing down, and there’s no wand that can wave to fix it.
Yeah I got some storage already. I think I’ll get some more if I see a “discount”
Yep, been buying used kindles for cheap and jailbreaking them, set for reading forever, and sd cards and hard drives. Let it ride.
Off topic, but you seem likely to have opinions: If I was looking for a device to read in/before bed (ideally not a backlit screen) that would be used for more than just text (comics, tabletop rpg pdf content that would contain tables and illustrations, etc), are there any obvious choices, or things to look for? I’m comfortable jailbreaking, or even performing minor hard mods, but I haven’t really shopped for an ereader before so I frankly have no idea what to look for
The issue lies in power. Lit screen or not, the device needs to be able to call up 500MB or more for a comic series, more, way more for an omnibus or collection. For that, I haven’t found an ebook reader barring BOOX products, which are higher-end, luxury Android ereaders with power to match their cost.
A Kindle 4 is a great ereader with a lot of life left - if you like books. Manga snd comics?.. stick to a modern ereader or a tablet.
Eh, I didn’t go for the OLED upgrade and I’m still stoked about mine.
Neither did I, but lately it’s been docked since I bent a CPU pin on my regular PC and have yet to unbend it, so it’s been a temporary replacement. OLED wouldn’t have made a difference in most of its use time in my case.
Was using mine docked as well for a couple weeks while I waited for my RMAs to go through. Went really well.
Just wake from Bluetooth. Which is honestly crazy they didn’t include it to begin with.
I didn’t know that wasn’t originally possible. I don’t use Bluetooth with it at all though. My headset and the controller I was using both has dongles, and now I use the Steam controller with it, so no change.
The mouse and keyboard are just regular corded ones as well.
Wait, are you able to wake it with your Steam Controller? I haven’t been able to. I’m not on the beta OS though, I was having too many issues with some games on it.
I was an OG pre-order and this price point would have been a big fat hell nah from me. Even more true 4+ years later.
I was just looking up strix halo prices because I want another processing machine. The framework platform I was looking at last year is 1200 more expensive (just the base price) than last year.
The 128gb variant was $1999 to start with last year… https://frame.work/products/desktop-diy-amd-aimax300/configuration/new
And that’s not counting the NVMe, which also has seen major increases in market price.
I got a 128GB version last year with an 8TB NVMe drive. Was, IIRC, $2,500 at that point.
Now it’s $4,178.
Yeah I saw the price hike and I didn’t even bother going further with the configuration. I could do a major home improvement project at these prices. The only fear I have is that its only going to get worse.
Same, and I too bought the LED and OLED. I sold my LED for $420 (with the new 1 TB SSD from the OLED I bought, added back grips and the original dock) to my friend cause he wanted to get one for his brother.
Same, and I too bought the LED and OLED. I sold my LED for $420 (with the new 1 TB SSD from the OLED I bought, added back grips and the original dock) to my friend cause he wanted to get one for his brother.
I gave the LED one to my partner and now we can play cozy games side by side in bed.
Prices of everything’s going up and up… guess what’s staying exactly the damn same?
Wages. Nah, dawg. We ain’t buying your shit if you don’t spread the wealth.
Don’t worry, trump controls the fed now. He’ll make sure the dollar becomes worthless, and everyone will be billionaires!
I’m sure the peeps at Valve are getting paid very well.
NO WAGE ONLY CONSUME
Time to consume the rich.
And somehow weed street prices
Dealers know what’s up. Coke prices have also held steady for decades.
🙏 they keep the service industry running. Bless your local coke plug
You can thank legal weed for that. Oregon weed prices have stayed pretty cool and low for a long while now. Helps that this stuff is pretty easy to grow.
Not much legal weed, were I’m from
Still the price stayed the same since now…nearly 25 years
With good connections or in bulk, it got even cheaper than beforeNot sure how that works out with rising energy prices.
Maybe the switch to LEDs saved us here
The main reason the Steam Deck was popular to begin with was that it was a relatively affordable gaming PC in a handheld form factor. It has been getting less and less affordable as more time has gone on.
Going to be a very tough sell from now on.
Not if everyone else goes up too
That doesn’t magically give me money to buy any alternatives with.
All this shit is Sam Altman’s fault, slimy fuck
I wish it was him alone, would be so much easier. This blame goes at least to all other big tech companies
I can still make fun of the guy for being a baby welfare queen bigger than Elon Musk.
Totally get it. But, being real, budget is always a relative term. I wouldn’t have been able to afford the cheapest version before, period. Mine was gifted to me. Items like this are only “budget” if you actually have a budget for a one off gaming device in the first place.
I’m in the same boat as you if mine dies. No way in hell could I swing even the prices on the LCD version if they still offered them, much less the oled. It’s what? 750+ USD for the lower tier version? That’s almost my fucking mortgage. The LCD would still sit at the 600+ range most likely.
And the deck is technically a full PC if you get a dock and set it up, but that’s still a damn big outlay for a low tier PC.
So, yeah, fuck Altman and every other dipshit pushing hopped up llms like they’re the second coming.
No no you mean Scam Fartman his alter ego.
I mean, it was also popular because it was relatively open in a field of closed handhelds. You could play, basically, whatever you wanted on it. Price was a factor as well… but it was never cheap. Just less expensive than other options.
I bought an ally x about a year and a half ago. At the time it commanded a substantial premium over the OLED deck, but it had the specs to back it up. Since then the price gap has closed and Asus has released another version of the Ally. Asus isn’t the only other handheld maker in town and you can install Bazzite or Steam OS on most of the deck alternatives. Unless you want an out of the box experience that doesn’t involve windows, I am not sure the price point for four year old hardware makes any sense.
For real. Doesn’t this just push people toward some of the cooler Lenovos, etc?
No.
Lenovo Legion Go prices have jumped by up to $650 in six months
Every Legion Go S and Legion Go 2 device I could find was more expensive than it was last year. Thanks, AI-driven RAM crunch.
Yeah, this is effecting everything and everyone, not just one or two companies.
I could technically sell the parts of my computer today at a higher price than I bought them at because of all this bullshit.
Thanks for the correction and especially the link.
I guess that’s on me for not checking in such a long time.
Depends how long competitors can keep their prices in that range. I assume lenovo have some economy of scale in their favor, but I think they’ll eventually be priced up and out too.
Their prices have already been hiked up by way more than the SD
Nah. It’s all relative. If everything goes up accordingly, then steamdeck will remain a good buy.
Or nothing will be a good buy because people won’t be able to afford to get anything.
What about refurbished gaming computer and consoles?
Have you seen the prices of used memory and storage?
I definitely wouldn’t have gotten one if it was more than the $350 I paid. Although after I got one I would have considered paying more.
Noooo way would I pay $750+
There’s better handhelds out there now, but they’re more expensive. The Lenovo legion go 2 is supposed to be good if you install bazzite or steam os on it but the top end models are like £2000
No other handhelds have the dual trackpads, symmetrical layout, and capacitive thumbsticks that the Steam Deck has, which are the selling points for me.
Yeah fair point. I doubt they’d meet the deck’s ergonomic quality either.
At this stage, the price hike of the steam deck is probably more about making the price of the upcoming Steam Box and VR headset look like an easier pill to swallow, and not about actually needing to raise the price of the steam deck.
Could be both, but I think that both RAM and SSDs have gotten so expensive due to the AI bubble that even high volume manufacturers are having to raise prices by an unreasonable amount to stay profitable.
You’re not wrong, but I don’t think it went up $300 over what it was when they released the OLED model. The micron 2230 1 tb ssd is like $200 right now (micron was a major provider of 1 TB steam deck storage, but Valve used several) and that’s what I can get it for. They were like $140 when the OLED came out in 2023, they went below $100 like a nearly a year later. Ram has definitely shot way up, but I doubt even that has straight up 5x on the price, to constitute the rest of that $300 increase.
I’ll still say this will be a lot more about making the steam box have less sticker shock.
Companies usually do not pay the same prices as an end customer, so they probably didn’t paid $100 but way less (i know a dude with a company that pay WAY less an SSD than what i can find myself, like 40 instead of 120 and he isn’t a big tech company, it was before the price hell) and probably the companies that produce SSD and RAM made the prices more similiar to the ones end customers pay because it’s just more profitable to sell to AI companies instead of Valve
That was part of my point and why I said that those prices were what I could buy them for.
I’m tired, boss.
