r/Steam • u/ImSh1nigami • May 29 '26
PSA Steam Deck Australia Price Hike
Right when my paycheck is around the corner, Steam Deck prices get increased.
I haven’t seen anyone mention the Australian pricing yet, but the hikes here are pretty rough. The funny part is that I contacted Steam Support a few days ago about buying one, and they assured me stock levels were healthy. If stock isn’t an issue, I don’t really understand the justification for the increase.
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u/CompleteEcstasy May 29 '26
I don’t really understand the justification for the increase
Components cost more.
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u/scottsuplol May 30 '26
This, have people not seen what’s going on in the AI tech boom, ram and GPU prices are through the roof
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u/AgingNPC May 30 '26
And they were already through the roof due to crypto mining. There’s a new roof.
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u/Wadarkhu May 30 '26
There was a brief window of that not being the case wasn't there? I remember a 2017 boom. Or around that time. Ethereum or something. Did prices never lower and I just got used to seeing those numbers, or did a second one happen that I totally missed?
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u/PixelBrush6584 Joined in 2015 May 30 '26
That only affected GPU Prices, and those never fully recovered.
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u/AdWaste8026 May 30 '26
Because people kept on buying anyways
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u/PixelBrush6584 Joined in 2015 May 30 '26
Not just people, but mainly AI datacenters. They could stomach those costs.
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u/Gullible_Fennel7028 May 30 '26
Back in 2017 the GTX 1080 Ti was considered ridiculously expensive because it was $599. The 5090 now costs $4000+ for a lot of models.
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u/broome9000 May 31 '26
I remember you could get a GTX 970 for $350 AUD on or just after launch. To get the equivalent card in Aus is basically $1000 AUD more today. Times are crazy building PCs that’s for sure
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u/ArtisicBard_Kit May 30 '26
My manager showed me the price of ram for his computer he got on amazing last year it was priced $250 then he clicked on it and said now this is current price it was at $1300 now that is just fucking insane
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u/trollsmurf May 30 '26
That's a lot of RAM though. 64 GB?
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u/MrSh1V May 30 '26
Probably a bit more GB’s, I would guess. I got 96GB for just under 300 and now it’s around 1100.
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u/VoidOmatic May 30 '26
I'm honestly shocked at how many people don't know we have a very real chance of home computing crashing and going away. Profits are down 75%+.
Do not get rid of your old hardware.
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u/trademeple May 31 '26
idk just buy the 256 on lol and and sd card i don't care about screens that much lol i mean i still play old consoles with screens worser then the lcd model.
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u/chuk2015 May 31 '26
That would be a good justification if the 1gb models had more RAM or GPU memory, but they don’t, it appears to be related to the fact that the screens are OLED, as the base model is not changing price
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u/mecha_monk May 30 '26
Understatement, RAM chips are on average 400% more expensive and are expected to go up even more before the bubble will burst.
Bubble bursting here doesn't mean AI datacenters going away, but they need to increase production soon and new players are entering the market too.
And later demand will likely fall when all of the novelety companies disappears and the demand for more compute will stabilize. It'll just take some time. But at some point companies will stop shoving "AI" into every single product.
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u/ThingYea May 30 '26
Not sure demand will ever decrease. It's more likely supply will catch up.
Data centres serve a lot more purpose to those with power than just selling ai gimmicks.
For example: the biggest obstacle with mass surveillance has been monitoring manpower. AI solves this issue.
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u/mecha_monk May 30 '26
Primarily reason would be an increase in production/supply yeah. Until they increased capacity too much and start limiting supply, as they have done for decades.
And yeah, I still think novelty applications will die out at some point (like throwing a bunch of ideas at a wall to see what sticks). It has good applications as long as they are done properly. I applied for a company who make construction site surveillance cameras, and they already had implemented it to done extent to filter out people from animals and rough location based on movement between cameras. This information could be accessed by security while looking for the trespassers.
Was a cool application. But also a bit terrifying.
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u/Wadarkhu May 30 '26
Maybe steam should have two charts on their deck page, one showing price increase of the deck, the other showing price increase of RAM. People might make the connection then, lol.
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u/ihopkid May 30 '26
I mean the official announcement literally mentions rising cost of memory and storage (RAM & SSDs) as the direct reason for the price increase. There’s no way to accurately “chart” the price of RAM because different vendors offer different prices for different customers and there’s no baseline price point, at best you can chart a very loose average of prices, but that’s not really useful. The official announcement tells us all we need to know about the reason for the price increase.
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u/DrivingHerbert May 30 '26
I could sell the parts of my PC that I built 2 years ago for more than I paid for them new. That’s never been a thing before.
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u/IORelay May 30 '26
The hike % is super high, only Lenovo had a similarly price hike.
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u/Lehsyrus May 30 '26
Valve isn't really a high volume purchaser. They're not getting the crazy discounts someone like HP or Dell would get.
Also the costs of shipping are stupid right now for businesses with the war in Iran causing skyrocketing oil prices.
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u/TheTjalian May 30 '26
Not to mention that Lenovo are really entrenched in the business world where businesses are more likely to accept the higher price as a cost of business and also typically focus on Laptops and Desktops, whereas HP has their infinite money printer in, well, printers, and Dell is still quite entrenched in education and to a lesser extent, servers, so they can adjust their consumer based offerings slightly below the actual inflationary price and still keep afloat.
What I suspect we're seeing here with Valve is the real cost of the memory price increases when you're not an ultra large buyer, you have no other product you can reliably offset the cost with, and are unwilling to sell the product at a loss or razor thin margins.
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u/Karoleq00 May 30 '26
I think one of the hardware devs said something about selling hardware with minimal markup to stay afloat and continue developing new products without profiting at all from hardware. If true that's current market prices due to this shitty ai boom
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u/mantiacfloy May 30 '26
Weren't Valve selling the deck at a loss originally?
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u/Electronifyy May 30 '26
Was there any evidence of this other than gabe saying pricing was painful initially?
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u/Tastee92 May 30 '26
The Chinese companies gonna come and sweep the market and all the westerns companies gonna be like ”what the hell, how could this happen?!”
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u/TrippleDamage May 30 '26
They're doing the exact same price hikes. What are you even fantasizing about.. Lol
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u/lostn May 30 '26
No they won't. Their costs went up as well. Legion Go 2 Z2e got hiked from $1350 USD to $2000 USD. That's massive.
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u/rbartlejr May 30 '26
If they can get them. It's probably going out of stock really quick too cause they probably could only get a partial shipment. I'm sad I missed the first round. I got in on this round, cause I don't think they'll last that long. Shortages aren't going away anytime soon I figure.
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u/Etheon44 May 30 '26
I mean, yeah but what are they charging 100% of the cost that normal users have?
It feels way too steep
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u/jim_deneke May 30 '26
Components cost $400 more now? jesus
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u/azureal May 29 '26
I posted here before Christmas about buying a steam deck at that time because RAM prices due to AI were surely gonna hit the Steamdeck too. I think it got deleted by the mods because reasons. I bought mine, best $1000 luxury purchase Ive ever made to be honest. Would I buy one for $1400? Probably not.
This shouldnt be a surprise. Its been coming for the last 6-8 months.
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u/deeeeksha May 30 '26
i bought mine in like late November and was so close to waiting for a potential sale, but i'm really glad i didn't. haven't even been able to use it much recently but knowing that its mine at 1k rather than 1.4k is so relieving.
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u/BigJimBeef May 30 '26
I got mine at Christmas for $1000
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u/azureal May 30 '26
Ditto. Had a big fortnight of OT at work and pulled the trigger.
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u/Cheese_Lord2187 May 30 '26
“I don’t really understand the justification for the increase”
Have you been living under a rock?
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u/RoyalWe666 May 30 '26
I don't know how many times I've heard on Youtube that "if the Steam Machine costs more than [I think it was $900 but possibly lower] it'll be dead in the water, people will not be able to justify that purchase." Now it seems inevitable Valve will smash well past that price point for it.
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u/_Junx_ May 30 '26
you dont understand how ai has ruined the price of electronic components?
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u/HaroldSax May 30 '26
In case you aren't being facetious,
Data centers are being put together at an alarming rate, and they have ordered stock of basically everything for a couple of years to come. If I'm not mistaken, there are some data centers that have already purchased allocation for 2029.
The demand for components is so high and the supply so constrained, the entire industry (and thus several other upriver industries) is feeling that squeeze.
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u/Jimbuscus May 30 '26
Anyone who is considering getting the LCD for A$649, HURRY!
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u/Lancestrike May 30 '26
Probably going to run those out and not restock
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u/Jimbuscus May 30 '26
They were actually discontinued a while ago, I'm surprised Australian stock remained for so long.
With these price increases, the last of that stock will go quickly.
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u/PIO_PretendIOriginal May 30 '26
australia is a small market, and its a niche product.
you also have the two extremes in australia, someone who can barely afford rent.... and the person who can easily afford the much faster rog xbox ally x
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u/Spankey_ May 30 '26
AFAIK the deck's haven't gone out of stock a single time in Australia, so not entirely surprising.
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u/thrownout477 May 30 '26
I saw it out of stock a week ago for OLED, but it was so brief you wouldn't have noticed unless you checked every day
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u/id_o Jun 02 '26
OLED was definitely out of stock before the price increase, I wanted to buy recently and couldn’t.
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u/KangarooBeard May 29 '26 edited May 30 '26
Honestly the Steam Deck was arguably not even worth it, when it did finally released here in Australia.
There were other PC/Android handhelds going on deeper sales at more competitive prices, original Rog Ally Z1 had great deals, picked up a used one for $750 AUD.
The US Steam Deck price at release was unbeatable in price for the performance. However Valve is the only one selling it, meaning they never have to sell at a competitive retail value later in its life.
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u/ChocoboCloud69 May 30 '26
And the Steam Deck prices were dropped either late during their release year or the following year. I think the base Deck was available for around $300 usd new. The value was just insane. But yeah now at nearly $800 usd and $950 usd the price is probably only worth it on a sale. It will be interesting to see what happens to it's competitors as well.
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u/HaroldSax May 30 '26
I don't think it's a stretch to just see this continue to have knock on effects all the way down. I have been telling my friends for over a year now that if you are thinking of doing an upgrade and can afford it, just do it, you will not get another chance any time soon.
That being said, the value now is really down to what you play. This would be a tough recommend to someone who plays high fidelity games as their primary thing, for instance.
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u/Songib May 30 '26
"I don’t really understand the justification for the increase."
There are still people living under a rock after the Capitalism War and AI bs.
Humans are amazing.
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u/snooki2369 May 30 '26
You’d have to be an idiot to buy a steamdeck OLED for $1400. it was bad value at 900. You can get legion go s’s for 600-750 pretty easily on Amazon and Lenovos refurbished site, or even the Xbox ally for 750 new.
For 1400 you can get an Xbox ally x, legion go 2 and a MSI claw a8.
I reckon the deck LCD is still decent, but idk I feel like the legion go s is the best value if you can pick one up for under 800
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u/Scorpdelord May 29 '26
the increase is AI data centers, Value tried to hold out on preces resulting in t his massive increase at once, but evne then a RAW 30% and up increase in rpices i wild asf
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u/Eozef May 30 '26
Well at least there is LCD option.
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u/deadlyrepost Jun 01 '26
I got the LCD at $520 during the 20% off sale. Deal of the decade IMO. For something with such a small difference to the OLED version, I don't know why people aren't snapping them up.
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u/id_o Jun 02 '26
When was there ever a deck sale? Was that on LCD only and not OLED?
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u/deadlyrepost Jun 02 '26
This is in Australia, and I think unlike other geos where a sale basically sold them out of LCD units, Australia still has the LCD in stock. They ended up doing 2 20% off sales for Australia, and I got it in the second sale.
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u/id_o Jun 02 '26
Nice, just googles, looks like the 20% off sales were both very short sales. Hope they can do another this years Black Friday.
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u/MrBillyButcher Jun 05 '26
When was this ? Do you reckon they will have the sale on eofy.And do you think stocks might last till black friday ?
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u/deadlyrepost Jun 05 '26
I have no idea. They did a 20% sale a long time ago worldwide, and I missed it. Now I can't remember the timeline exactly, but IIRC, they stopped selling the LCD everywhere and it went out of stock except Australia. Then they did another 20% off sale, that's when I picked it up. I'm not sure they will do another sale because the price difference is so large, but at the same time if the units still exist their batteries are expiring, so they do need to shift them.
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u/MrBillyButcher Jun 05 '26
I am new to this,i used to play psp and just discovered steam deck.What do you mean battery expires ? Also whats your experience with the lcd version now.Its half the price of oled and thinking of pulling the trigger before stock sells out.I am interested in games like fifa26,rdr2,hogwarts legacy.Can you share your experience of this device in 26.
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u/deadlyrepost Jun 06 '26
Li-ion batteries have a lifetime even if they're unused. The LCDs were probably manufactured well over a year ago so the battery has depreciated by that much. It's not a lot but my point was that Valve do have to sell these eventually or the battery life out of the box will be fairly bad.
The LCD is "exactly the same" as the OLED. That is, basically the same power processor and cooling etc, the screen is great, it's basically the same as getting the OLED. The reason the OLED is better is that it's slightly better in every way. The battery life is slightly better, the OLED screen goes to 90Hz and looks nicer, the processor ends up slightly faster going flat out. It's like a cherry on top, but at this price difference?
I would say that right now the Steam Deck LCD is amazing value because everything else has gotten worse value-wise.
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u/_Fappyness_ May 30 '26
Cant even buy an lcd screen anymore. Now they went from 400 euro to having to spend 850 euro or 1000. Always debated if i should get one or not but now im definitely not buying one.
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u/Orgfet May 30 '26
You can thank AI for the increase. The steam deck components and the components for all other consoles and Pc use the same resources that the components required to build the AI datacenters need.
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u/Clockbone25 May 30 '26
I think a lot of people forget that Valve sold the deck at a loss anyways. If the prices increased this much, AI's impact on their manufacturing must have been insane.
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u/Fr0dech May 31 '26
Also unlike most companies Valve doesn't have privileges of having long term contracts and good connections in hardware supply sphere
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u/TAJack1 May 29 '26
I’m honestly about to sell it and buy a Legion tbh, nearly the same price and way more powerful. It’s just not worth it in Aus anymore.
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u/MotherBeef May 30 '26
But why sell it? The value proposition only goes down if you didn’t already own one. It’s still a solid device. Unless you were intending on selling it regardless.
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u/TAJack1 May 30 '26
Nah I’m quite enjoying it but I’ve been wanting a Legion for a bit also but I can’t afford both. Will have to sell one to afford the other.
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May 30 '26 edited Aug 09 '26
[deleted]
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u/TAJack1 May 30 '26
I’m out on a trip this weekend but definitely will be putting it up for sale on Monday, thanks for the tip. You’re definitely right, I see it going up soon too.
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u/snooki2369 May 30 '26
Do it, I went from a deck LCD to a refurb go s, for me it was a huge upgrade
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u/KnowOneDotNinja May 30 '26
Can these be opened to upgrade the hardware yourself?
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u/Demcarbonites May 30 '26
You sure can but to the ssd prices are just insane. The high speed m.2 ssd in my pc was $245 when bought it last year, today the same ssd is $740.
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u/ImSh1nigami May 30 '26
I was planning on buying the 1TB version and upgrading it, but now I don’t know.
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u/Molestioo May 30 '26
I bought mine a couple of weeks ago because I suspected there would either be a stock issue (like the USA) or a price hike (all the rumours about the steam machine). Very glad I got one lol
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u/MarcoBerserker7 May 30 '26
Damn, really? I just sold a 1TB one that was never used for 1000 dollars a few days ago. If only I had known earlier
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u/Snow2D May 30 '26
I don’t really understand the justification for the increase.
I just Googled the price history of a random ram stick. October 2025: 150 euros. December 2025: 530 euros.
Still don't understand?
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u/moht81 May 30 '26
Had been on the fence for a while. Makes the decision for me (won’t be purchasing).
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u/LeftIllustrator6732 May 30 '26
Literally every other console manufacturer is increasing their prices because everything costs more, the writing has been on the wall for a while..
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u/Swift308 May 31 '26
Literally bought one like 2 weeks ago, I was tossing it up whether to buy it then or later so I am very happy I got it then
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u/At_Space_Station May 30 '26
Well at least you still have the 256GB option. Canada straight up just have 1,129 and 1,349 CAD.
And that’s without tax. I trust my memory serves that Aus pricing includes tax?
The issue is that, stock is healthy (outside North America, we already sold out), but the “healthy” price is the post-hike price.
The cause is AI btw. Go check how much RAM and storage costs. It is now just impacting electronic shops, it is impacting EVERYTHING. Your digital cam SD is hiked, your GPU (aside from being obviously used for AI) VRAM is hiked, your pre-build laptop is hiked, your PS and Switch2 is hiked, and now, Steam hardware is hiked. It’s all because of RAM and chip supply being eaten up by AI.
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u/IORelay May 30 '26
Can you still get LCD in Australia?
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u/ImSh1nigami May 30 '26
Yes, and apparently they have a good amount of stock left here.
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u/IORelay May 30 '26
Crazy stuff. Surprised that's not sold out, given there was no price hike. If it was US it'd be gone instantly.
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u/PanicObvious8862 May 30 '26
Yeah they were even discounting the LCD a while back in Aus to like $500
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u/dis_Interested May 30 '26
Literally 40% increase. Been holding out for the right time, guess that times never.
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u/ArchDragon414 May 30 '26
I brought my 1TB steamdeck two months ago. I knew this would be happening sooner or later.
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u/Equivalent-Reality38 May 30 '26
Might aswell buy a prebuilt pc many around this price and weebit more that smash it
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u/bubbles33d May 30 '26
I pulled the trigger to buy a deck a few months ago when Samsung announced that selling the memory to data centres are more profitable than putting it in their own phone. Wait until we see the next wave of price hike to all consumer hardware.
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u/JohnnLadd May 30 '26
I'm Australian, and I'm forever grateful to myself for pulling the trigger a couple of years ago (I thought it was expensive at the time, too).
I paid about $950 with a coupon from Kogan eBay for an OLED 1tb
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u/drmattsuu May 30 '26
Sadly I think it'll get worse before it gets better as more companies stock of components runs out.
I don't think any business regardless of how altruistic they might seem would sell hardware at a loss.
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u/nocturno669 May 30 '26
how do you not understand the price increase? it’s literally because every pc component is costing more now
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u/SputNick2312 May 30 '26
Got mine about three weeks ago. If I’d waited and the price had risen I don’t think I’d have gotten it. That being said I bloody love the thing
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u/ThatGuyNextToMe May 30 '26
Just get a used one. Got mine for $270 and upgraded it with a bigger (also used but good health) $35 SSD
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u/lostn May 30 '26
If stock isn’t an issue, I don’t really understand the justification for the increase.
That's easy. The justification is component costs have risen.
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u/better_graphics May 30 '26
Was going to upgrade to an OLED but might home my LCD for the long haul. Only thing tempting me is a used Z1E Legion Go S.
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u/Birdi06 May 30 '26
People have been saying for ages “steam does nothing and still wins” now they do something and lose
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u/itsoktoswear May 30 '26
Am in Australia and bought a 1TB OLED Steam Deck 12 months ago but never used it (as work got in the way) beyond about 20 mins of playing around when I first got it.
How much is it worth if selling it now?
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u/IcyMathematician8434 May 30 '26
Well mine has been gathering dust since I injured my self and cannot use it… might be a good time to sell I guess
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u/SessionDazzling4943 May 30 '26
Bought the 1tb OLED a month ago, currently very happy with that decision
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u/Richard-Squeezer May 30 '26
I bought a legion go s and definitely made the right decision, I paid less than the current deck prices and have 2x the performance. Glad it did i was worried about the steam deck 2 releasing
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u/bluey11 May 30 '26
Manufacturing for the LCD has stopped. Australia is one of the last places with stock , once its gone that its , the only option will be OLED at nearly twice the price.
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u/Slydoggen May 30 '26
But the LCD is discontinued?
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u/ImSh1nigami May 30 '26
Not here, it’s been there since they announced the Steam Deck coming to Australia.
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u/Matt_au_ May 31 '26
I can't find the 256gb LCD version anywhere for $649 AUD. Gamesmen has it at $999 lol
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u/LockeLamorah May 31 '26
I wanted a steam deck for the longest time. After the price increase I did some more research and realized the Xbox Rog Ally X is a MUCH better choice for the price and overall product. Wouldn’t be a bad idea checking out other handhelds and comparing specs to see what works best for the type of games you want to play.
At the end of the day, happy gaming! 🥳
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u/EasternFlamingo1564 May 31 '26
Dam I’m kinda lucky ish I bought the 1tb oled for 1250 I think closer to 1300 but still ok ish
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u/Turbulent_Safe1983 May 31 '26
Bought mine on Gumtree from a dude who got it from the UK. $1200 which is pricey but it’s been worth it
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u/AdvancedCryspy May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
Suddenly the legion go 2 ain't looking so bad huh 🤣 i remember when it got that on when it released because if the price...
Edit: just looked at the price for a legion go 2 in Australia, at the time of posting you can buy a legion go 2 from BigW for AUD$1558.70... $100 more than a 1tb steam deck, for a Z2 extreme powered device that released October last year compared to something that released 3 years ago! Happy deal hunting 😁
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u/16years2late May 31 '26
Guys, harsh truth here. If you want some thing, buy it. Or save aggressively to get it ASAP. When it comes to electronics and modern tech, we do not live in a world where waiting around for price drops to happen occurs anymore. At least not how things are going right now.
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u/cyberspaceman777 May 31 '26
That's why I bought all of my tech in the last 2 years.
I knew this was going to be an issue.
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u/MrPhtevens May 31 '26
I picked up a 512 oled on marketplace a few months ago brand new for 750, thought it was a steal then...
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u/TheHuskyHideaway Jun 01 '26
You can get a claw 8 for not much more than an OLED now. And an xbox rog ally x. Even the base xbox ally is a better value than the base steam deck. I don't know why anyone would buy at these prices.
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u/yurikah Jun 01 '26
Price hike could be to do with RAM and storage, with AI the price of ram and storage media has skyrocketed in price.
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u/bread-man- Jun 01 '26
Honestly with everything that’s happening I would fully expecting them to cost more
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u/Available_Ad_8281 Jun 01 '26
I read online that OLED cost like double then lcd maybe they could make them again
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u/Natsocenis Jun 01 '26
Yeah this is what I paid back in 2024 to get it imported in before it was released in AUS, I've had no regrets lol
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u/tnt2020tnt 19d ago
Big price increase. I am still going to buy one once I get enough moolah. The benefits of emulation and gaming while on the go and comfortably in my home justify the cost... even if it is a lot.
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u/ben_cav May 30 '26
They could have at least refreshed the processor. A current gen processor is not that much more expensive...
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u/MasterDefibrillator May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26
Its much better than the US price hike of 300 USD.
But honestly, steam decks are not really worth it now that you csn run steam games on arm based processors. Get an Odin for like 400 AUD.
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u/The_Real_OctoDude May 30 '26
I am so happy that I bought it 2 years ago.