The Steam Deck is back, and affordable PC gaming is dead

PCWorld reports the Steam Deck has returned to market with nearly doubled pricing, featuring only OLED models at $789 for 512GB and $949 for 1TB versions. Valve discontinued cheaper LCD models and attributes price increases to rising memory and storage costs driven by AI industry demand affecting consumer hardware. This trend extends beyond Steam Deck to other gaming handhelds like Lenovo Legion Go, signaling broader affordability challenges in PC gaming hardware. The Steam Deck, harbinger of a portable PC gaming revolution, has been out of stock for three months. Now it's back at almost double the price of the original model. It'll cost you $789 USD to get the 512GB OLED version, $949 for the 1TB upgrade. The original LCD model, which debuted at $400, is resigned to the dustbin of history . Welcome to PC gaming in 2026, where the K-shaped economy has claimed the last remaining affordable option. The 512GB OLED model now costs $1,129 in Canada, 649 pounds in the UK, 779 euro in Europe, $1,199 in Australia, and 3,279 PLN in Poland.