Newell made the statement during a recent interview with IGN. Noting that “part of what you do with pricing is you’re making a promise to customers. But, we wouldn’t expect to be adjusting the SKU pricing.” The Steam Deck launched on February 25 and was available for reservation in the Summer of 2021. There are three models available, with pricing starting at $399 for the 64GB model. You can bump things up to 256GB for $529, or 512GB for $649. All three models also come with a microSD card slot for expandable storage. And it’s apparently relatively easy to swap internal storage out if you want more space for games.
Steam Deck pricing won’t get an increase, but you’ll still need to wait in line
So the Steam Deck pricing won’t increase, and that’s great. It means you can expect to pay what everyone else who completed a purchase last week has already paid. But, you’ll still need to wait in line for your chance to buy one. Reservations are still being used to secure units, and anyone that places a reservation for one at this point in time will have to wait until after Q2 of 2022 to get one. Keep in mind that many people who placed reservations last year also have “after Q2 of 2022” listed as their expected ship date. So the queue is very likely pretty long.
Valve may consider releasing higher end versions of the Steam Deck
Just because pricing won’t increase on current models, that doesn’t mean it won’t cost more to get one directly from Steam. Last week, Newell mentioned that a Steam Deck 2 with more powerful hardware is already being planned. When and if those units make it to production, consumers can expect those to cost more than what you can buy right now. Naturally, given they’ll probably offer higher-end components and pump out better graphics.
