We’re surprised, to be sure, but we’re also suspicious that Valve might be taking a clever approach to its inventory management to ensure there’s enough demand for the console before it returns to sale again. We could be wrong, though, as this latest batch has clearly found enough takers, and fast.

It’s going to be an interesting few months ahead for Valve and its console as it navigates component shortages and their rising costs. However, there might be nothing to worry about if the Steam Deck continues to be as desirable as it currently seems to be among consumers.

For the moment, however, those among you who weren’t able to get their hands on one might have a long wait ahead until the next batch becomes available. And if you’re waiting for the Steam Machine, it might be an even more costly proposition, based on rumors.

He also made a note that these estimates were from two months ago. With the prices of memory and storage having only gone up since then, this likely means that the Steam Machine will in turn be much more expensive despite its mid-range CPU and GPU specs.

“Take this with a grain of salt, because it was just whispers in my ear, but back when I was told a figure for what Valve’s estimated price they’d have to set the starting price of Steam Machine, it was still higher than today’s Steam Deck prices,” he wrote. “And that was 2 months ago.”

Responding to another social media user about whether the price hikes for the Steam Deck have been made to allow Valve to eat some losses by selling the Steam Machine for cheaper, Lynch responded by saying that, while he doesn’t know, he doubts that this might be the case.

This leak follows a report from last month that had indicated that the price for the Steam Machine has been heavily impacted by storage and memory prices. Speaking to Polygon about the then-recent Steam Controller launch, hardware engineer Steve Cardinali noted that the controller was released because it “doesn’t have RAM in it, and it’s not as complicated to start getting out the door for us.”

At the time, Lynch had noted that there has been quite a big jump in Valve’s internal prices for the Steam Machine before and after the price of RAM. “I’ve been told some Valve internal pricing targets they had before AND after RAM skyrocketed,” he wrote. “Machine is affected the most. Frame is not as bad.”

Valve hasn’t yet announced an official launch date for the Steam Machine, and while the company had mentioned that it wants to ship it, along with the Steam Controller and the Steam Frame, in the first half of 2026, that window is quickly slipping by.

“Our goal of shipping all three products in the first half of the year has not changed,” explained Valve in February. “But we have work to do to land on concrete pricing and launch dates that we can confidently announce, being mindful of how quickly the circumstances around both of those things can change. We will keep you updated as much as we can as we finalize those plans as soon as possible.”

In March, the company reaffirmed its plans to ship “all three products this year.” However, due to the ongoing memory shortages, the company has only recently been able to ship one of the products—Steam Controller. In the meantime, the company is still working on its launch plans, and will share more details as those plans are finalized.

If you’ve been in the market for a shiny new unit, you might want to sit down for this next bit. The 512 GB model now costs an eye-watering $789, up from $549 (so roughly $240 more). The 1 TB model’s now too close to the thousand dollar mark, clocking in at $949, up from $649 (an increase of $300). We can’t say we didn’t see this coming, but it’s still quite a shock.

Valve’s reasoning behind the hike in its announcement is also the reason for the shortages in the first place. It’s going to be interesting to see how the new prices affect sales and whether there will be any pushback from the gaming community. And how will this affect the upcoming Steam Machine, whose price has reportedly skyrocketed after initially facing delays due to the ongoing worldwide RAM shortages? You can be sure we’ll be here telling you about it as soon as it happens, so stay tuned.

In South Korea, the 512 GB model will be priced at ₩898,000, and the 1 TB model at ₩1,048,000. Taiwan will see prices raised to NT$18,980 for the 512 GB model and NT$22,480 for the 1 TB model. Currently, no price hikes are planned for Hong Kong.

The announcement came from Komodo Station—the company in charge of selling the Steam Deck in the Asian markets. And while no explicit reason has been noted, it comes in light of “rising logistics costs that have continued since the [Steam Deck]’s launch, as well as recent fluctuations in the exchange rate environment,” according to the report (via machine translation).

Back in February, Valve had started issuing a warning on the official listing for the Steam Deck OLED. The company also confirmed that production on the Steam Deck LCD 256 GB had been stopped, with any available units being leftover stock.

“Steam Deck OLED may be out-of-stock intermittently in some regions due to memory and storage shortages,” wrote Valve. “Steam Deck LCD 256GB is no longer in production, and once sold out, will no longer be available.”

Valve has been seeing many of its hardware plans affected by global memory shortages. The company confirmed that its plans to launch the Steam Machine, the Steam Frame, and the new Steam Controller had been pushed back, with the new release window being the first half of 2026.

“Our goal of shipping all three products in the first half of the year has not changed,” explained the company. “But we have work to do to land on concrete pricing and launch dates that we can confidently announce, being mindful of how quickly the circumstances around both of those things can change. We will keep you updated as much as we can as we finalize those plans as soon as possible.”

In the meantime, Sony is also seeing adverse effects of the RAM shortage, with a report from last month indicating that the company might push the launch of the PS6 back as far as 2029. Nintendo is also reportedly keeping an eye on memory prices, with a price hike possibly coming later in the year. Neither company has made any statements, however.

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa had spoken about keeping an eye on market conditions like memory shortages and trade tariffs back in January. At the time, he said, “We aim to address this by advancing component procurement over the medium to long term.”

Valve has unveiled the Steam Deck OLED: Limited Edition White, which, as its name suggests, is a new white and gray version of the Steam Deck OLED 1 TB model. It features the same specs, but will come with an exclusive white carrying case and microfiber cleaning cloth.

The Limited Edition model will be priced at $679 USD, and will be available in all regions where the Steam Deck is shipped starting November 18. It will be sold until stock runs out. Valve has also stated that it will be restricting purchases of the console to one unit per Steam account so that as many customers as possible can get their hands on it.

Headlining the list is last year’s critically acclaimed title Baldur’s Gate 3. Following the epic RPG is a good mix of major releases as well as smaller indie games. The second most-played game, for instance, was Vampire Survivors, which was followed by Dave the Diver. Palworld, meanwhile, comes in at 6. The top 10 spots on the list also feature AAA releases like Hogwarts Legacy at 4, Elden Ring at 5, Cyberpunk 2077 at 7, Grand Theft Auto 5 at 8, and Red Dead Redemption 2 at 10.

The overall list is quite interesting, since it doesn’t just include the Steam Deck Verified games that have Valve’s approval for being playable on the Steam Deck with full optimisations. For example, Fallout 4 and Forza Horizon 5 are both present on the list, despite only being marked as Playable on the Steam Deck.

The list also features a healthy mix of genres, ranging from survival crafting titles like Terraria and Valheim, to co-op shooters like the recently-released Helldivers 2, to large-scale story-based action games like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

You can check out the top 20 below, or the full top 100 through the link above.

At the time of writing, 4,604 games on Steam have been Verified for play on the Steam Deck (which means they’re fully optimized for the device), while 9,406 have been marked as Playable on the system (which means they’re playable, but might face some technical issues).

On the flip side, 3,920 games are marked as Unsupported on the Steam Deck. Interestingly, the Unsupported tag doesn’t necessarily mean that the game won’t run on the Steam Deck; rather, it just means that Valve hasn’t yet tested the game for the handheld yet.

The handheld gaming PC market has been quite interesting to observe in more recent times. Major titles are seeing releases on Steam with studios making a conscious effort to get their games playable on the Steam Deck. Other companies have also taken notice, and have been making and releasing their own handheld gaming PCs. This includes MSI with its Claw, Asus with its ROG Ally, and Lenovo with its Legion Go.

When asked by IGN how long it would take, designer Jay Shaw said, “I don’t know. It’ll be a while. I think it’ll be quite a while. We don’t have any kind of set date. I think we’re going to wait for the technology to present itself in a way that we find interesting and for the team to really want to make that leap. We’re very, very, very proud of this version of Steam Deck, and this is it. This is the one we’re the most happy with, and we think customers will be too.”

He also noted that the team is “thinking about Steam Deck 2 at all times,” but that it’s also satisfied and “this is really the kind of high end of what we wanted to do.” While a successor is likely, it could take a few years, echoing statements that Valve’s Pierre-Louis Griffais made last September.

He felt the developer was in a “pretty sweet spot” in playing all the newest titles this generation. He did clarify that the company is “working with developers on future releases” and that feedback is monitored. For now, “I think it has been pretty good on the horsepower front.”

The Steam Deck OLED is out on November 16th, with a 512 GB NVMe SSD variant costing $549.00 and a 1 TB NVMe SSD variant retailing for $649.00, while the current LCD model’s price drops to $399. Stay tuned for more details and updates on the handheld in the meantime.

Boasting “all the things you love about Steam Deck,” the Steam Deck OLED’s display supports “more colors, pure blacks, and amazing motion rendition” along with HDR. Its battery life is reportedly 30 to 50 percent more, with the OLED consuming less power and the AMD APU being more efficient. Faster downloads are also possible courtesy of Wi-Fi 6E, and it’s about five percent lighter than the LCD model at 30 grams.

The Steam Deck OLED will be available in two versions. The first has a 512 GB NVMe SSD, a carrying case and a Steam profile bundle for $549.00. The second throws in a 45W Power supply with a 2.5-meter cable, a carrying case with a removable liner, exclusive startup movie and virtual keyboard theme, premium anti-glare etched glass for the display and a 1 TB NVMe SSD for $649.00. Meanwhile, the current 256 GB LCD model’s price is dropping to $399.