Valve Boss Comments on Possible Steam Deck Price Increase

The Steam Deck may have just formally launched only a few short days ago, but some fans have already been fearful that manufacturer Valve may end up increasing the price of the handheld PC platform in the near future. Given the scarcity of parts and increased difficulties with manufacturing in recent years, concerns from consumers have started to rise when it comes to video game platforms increasing in price over time. Fortunately, in regard to the Steam Deck, at least, the head honcho at Valve has said that the hardware won't be getting more expensive at any point in the future. 

In a recent conversation with IGN, Valve head Gabe Newell confirmed that the price of the Steam Deck won't be going up. Newell said that Valve views the current prices of the Steam Deck as fixed, largely because it's a public commitment to potential purchasers. "I mean, part of what you do with pricing is you're making a promise to customers," Newell said. "But we wouldn't expect to be adjusting the SKU pricing."

Even though the current versions of the Steam Deck won't be seeing their values go up, Newell did state that he's not against new, higher-end versions of the system being released down the line. "That's the great thing about the PC market. [...] Like a year from now, AMD is going to have better parts. Right? A year from now, all the component suppliers are going to either expand capacity, expand performance, or reduce costs. So, we're absolutely going to ride that as hard as we can," Newell stated. "That's part of the thing about being in the PC space is everybody's essentially driving everybody else's price performance improvements over time."

For now, Valve is in the process of sending out the initial orders of the Steam Deck to those who pre-purchased the platform months ago. These shipments are then set to continue throughout 2022. Those who opt to purchase the Steam Deck at this very moment can expect the hardware to arrive at some point after Q2 of this year.