… Valve had already announced that the device won't be priced like a console, and now, with hardware prices touching record highs , that price is set to go higher. The thing to remember, though, is that consoles haven't been immune to the recent price hikes. …
… If there's anything such as a "healthy duopoly", then it certainly has its hallmarks too, which manifests in the form of a constant tug-of-war, wherein each player forces the other to sharpen its product, justify its pricing, and respond to competitive pressure. …
… The Steam Deck, however, demonstrated that performance alone doesn't guarantee commercial success, especially given the fact that powerful hardware often arrives with exclusionary prices. …
… Consumers are being priced out. But the reasons for inflation aren't nearly as straightforward. …
… The Radeon lineup offered comparable rasterization capabilities and comparable VRAM configurations for a slightly lower price, and yet, the software suite around RTX cards always seemed to tip the purchase decisions in Nvidia's favor. …
Jasmine Mannan Jun 28, 2026, 8:00 PM EDT Jasmine is Software and PC Hardware Author at XDA with years of tech reporting experience ranging from AI chatbots right down to gaming hardware, she's covered just about everything. …
… The DRAM crisis has effectively stopped hardware refresh cycles dead in their tracks at the moment, and standalone manufacturers aren't able to ship next-generation devices at sustainable price points. …
… It has clearly been delayed due to global hardware prices. In a market that moves at an unforgiving pace, every month of delay pushed the Steam Machine's 8GB VRAM closer towards obsolescence even before it arrives. …
… What happened after their hardware division was canned was much more important. …
… To be clear, DeepSeek made this move with a funding round on the horizon, so the timing wasn't purely generosity, and a well-judged price war is a useful way to look dominant ahead of a raise. …