New Steam Deck OLED price: Leaker calls Valve incompetent and raises Steam Machine price concerns

Valve has increased the price of the Steam Deck OLED by a massive margin. The 512 GB and 1 TB models of the Steam Deck OLED are now $240 and $300 more expensive at $789 and $949, respectively. Moore’s Law Is Dead, who has a habit of blasting companies for moves such as this, thinks that the Steam Deck price increase could be a side effect of Valve’s incompetence and is a bad sign for the Steam Machine.

MLID states in his latest video that, at $949 for the 1 TB model, Valve shouldn’t even have bothered restocking the Steam Deck OLED. Per the leaker, the Steam Deck OLED just doesn’t make any sense when we consider that the more powerful Asus ROG Xbox Ally X retails in the same price range.

For instance, Best Buy is selling the ROG Xbox Ally X with 24 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage for $999.99. The less powerful ROG Xbox Ally with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage is available on Amazon for $599.

Valve claims that the increased prices of the Steam Deck OLED are entirely due to “rising memory and storage costs” and “global logistical challenges across the industry as a whole”. MLID appears to dismiss these reasons, as other companies have found ways to manage the current RAM and storage crises. The leaker gives the example of the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X, which is a lower volume product than the Steam Deck OLED. While Asus also has to contend with inflated component prices, the ROG Xbox Ally X, which has 50% more RAM than the Steam Deck OLED, has somehow managed to stave off a huge price increase.

So, MLID asserts that the Steam Deck OLED price increase is more than a simple reflection of the RAM and storage crises, and Valve might either “be greedy or incompetent”. 

“Just cancel the Steam Machine”

The new Steam Deck OLED price could also be a herald of doom for the Steam Machine. Valve has struggled to get the Steam Machine to the market after having first shown the console back in November 2025. Six months later, and we have no idea of when the console might actually release or for how much.

So, MLID exclaims that if the price of the Steam Deck OLED is any indication, Valve should just cancel the Steam Machine. The leaker thinks that the Steam Machine should ideally be less than $700. Seeing the state of gaming console prices, where even Sony has been forced to make PS5 consoles more expensive, chances are very little that the Steam Machine will launch at or below $700.

In the end, it is quite clear that Valve has dropped the ball with the Steam Deck OLED restock and the accompanying new price. We’ll have to wait and see how things pan out and if Valve will be forced to revisit this move.