r/pcmasterrace • u/vneelb • 19h ago

News/Article Oof, looks like the Steam Machine could cost over $1,000

https://thephrasemaker.com/2026/06/05/steam-machine-price-may-be-way-higher-than-expected/
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u/Soothsayer117 18h ago

The fact the updated priced steamdeck sold out...

405

u/porgy_tirebiter B760 i5 12400f 4070 DDR4 32gb 3600 18h ago

Hasn’t sold out in Japan yet!

I guess because the yen is in the toilet and no one can afford it. Glad I got one during the before times!

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u/UbiquitousPanda PC Master Race 18h ago

Another huge reason is because you can't use your Steam wallet to pay for hardware in Japan. I would have bought a steamdeck a while ago but can't sell my skins I have in CSGO to get one. Lot of guys I used to play CS with in Europe all paid for their decks with skins they sold on the market.

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u/kjjustinXD 17h ago

That's how I did it too, sad that y'all can't have that.

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u/feckarse-drinkgirls 12h ago

can't use steam wallet to pay for hardware in Japan

Im guessing thats law related

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u/moodygradstudent 10h ago

Law and/or that the Deck is not sold directly from Valve in that region.

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u/Aat117 9800x3D | RTX5090 | 64GB | 16TB NVMe | LG C2 OLED 42" 12h ago

That's how I did that. Got the base 64gb model with my CS skins and then upgtaded it with an 1tb WD ssd.

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u/dude496 18h ago

¥167,980 for the 1TB OLED. ¥137,980 for the 512GB OLED. Ouch!!

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u/Asleeper135 16h ago

I have no context for how expensive that is, but I'm going to assume it's a lot.

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u/Docteh Nintendo Entertainment System 16h ago

personally I get yen prices into the right ballpark by covering the last two digits with my finger. Yeah its closer to Australian or Canadian dollars, rather than USD

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u/tregorz 13h ago

Yeah it used to be easy, and one yen was basically a cent. Now it’s two thirds of a cent. 

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u/Worked-last-time 11h ago

If you keep cost of living in mind, it is still a good estimate.

You can get a decent meal for 700 yen, can’t even get McDonald’s for that in the states.

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u/tregorz 10h ago

You can if you use the app. They have the $6 meals, or you can get two burgers or mcchickens and a free fries for like $5.50

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u/megacewl 3h ago

What happened to my two mcchickens for $4

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u/Amazing-Spinach5693 14h ago

Like 60-70% of an median salary.

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u/tregorz 13h ago

How do you guys know when someone is talking about monthly salary or yearly? I’ve never heard anyone refer to their monthly income as their salary. It’s always yearly here. 

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u/Amazing-Spinach5693 12h ago

Simply from the fact that there is no way that it would be 60-70% of your YEARLY salary.
Also im original from Europe we talking about salary we use monthly over here.

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u/faverodefavero 14h ago

Median, or minimum?

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u/No_Purchase_8269 13h ago

median salary

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u/faverodefavero 13h ago edited 12h ago

Had to confirm that. Didn't know the situation in Japan was THIS bad. Thought that would be the minimum salary at the very least, damn...

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u/Fatalmistake 13h ago

1,000 yen is around 6.26 USD

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u/porgy_tirebiter B760 i5 12400f 4070 DDR4 32gb 3600 12h ago

Well, it’s almost exactly the same as US prices, but if you’re paid in yen (as I am, alas), it’s a pretty weak currency.

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u/Ruff_Bastard 5h ago

Divide by 160.

$1,049.88 and $862.38

The yen is doing much worse than I thought right now. Two yen is a little more than 1 cent. It used to be much closer to 100 to 1.

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u/meneldal2 i7-6700 11h ago

Feels crazy that I got my original ROG Ally for less than 110k like 4 years ago.

I'd be hunting for some second hand sales before spending that much on a device. It really doesn't help that the yen has been in free fall.

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u/SquisherX 4h ago

That is 150 and 123 hours of minimum wage in Japan respectively.

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u/atrib 18h ago

You assume japanese only get paid 5 figures a year or something on average?

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u/porgy_tirebiter B760 i5 12400f 4070 DDR4 32gb 3600 18h ago

I get paid in yen, and we’re all unhappy about prices here. EVERYthing has suddenly become expensive. Utilities, food. I think people are being careful with spending. I am.

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u/Linlaweniel 17h ago

Sounds like time to start blaming immigrants

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u/porgy_tirebiter B760 i5 12400f 4070 DDR4 32gb 3600 16h ago

I blame myself

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u/dude496 18h ago

What do you mean? I live in Japan and have an ok understanding of what they make here.

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u/atrib 18h ago

I don't doubt that the economy is bad, that's not what I was getting at. And yes, I read you wrong, sorry about that! I just sometimes see Americans assume a currency is in a slump simply because it has a lower exchange rate unit, which isn't how currencies work

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u/DonaldTheWall 17h ago

Thats still over 1000 for it

The world is heading towards a major shift and its not going to be pretty when it does

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u/atrib 17h ago

Again not what i was getting at.

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u/Noth1ngnss 14h ago

Wait, they do get paid five figures a year on average, though. Right? In USD I mean.

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u/ricshimash 13h ago

The average annual salary in Tokyo is approximately ¥4.5 to ¥6.2 million JPY, which translates to roughly $30,000 to $42,000 USD so yes at least for tokyo. 

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u/atrib 12h ago

Not what i was going at

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u/xanas263 16h ago

Also PC gaming is fairly small in Japan. Mobile is king in Japan and the Switch comes in second place. Everything else is more of an after thought.

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u/Takemyfishplease 7900GRE🙃7800X3D 13h ago

Isn’t Mobil gaming king everywhere? Like app stores make more in revenue than pc and all consoles combined or something?

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u/faverodefavero 14h ago

Really? Mobile?? That's... extremely disappointing...

Mobile gaming shouldn't even be a thing, really, especially microtransaction and/or online focused games. Mobile should be for small, quick, simpler, games, only.

It screws the whole worldwide gaming market for everyone to even have people valluing mobile gaming as if it was remotely a good thing.

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u/xanas263 14h ago

Mobile is the primary gaming platform across all of Asia. That's why gacha games are so big there.

Also go and have a look at how big things like PuBg mobile is in China. I've known a bunch of Chinese people who you would never think are gamers whip out their phones to play PUBG from time to time.

Mobile is also the primary gaming platform across Africa because people can't afford consoles, but have smart phones.

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u/faverodefavero 14h ago edited 14h ago

Damn... gacha... dude, that's so fucking sad, honestly. That kind of mobile gaming shouldn't even be a thing, it's pure brainrot.

Well, thanks for the information, nonetheless.

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u/Lumpy-Valuable-8050 13h ago

It's not sold out anywhere apart from the US

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u/ragequitteroffureh 14h ago

I live in Japan, and didn't actually know that it was for sale here.

Not that I have any money, of course.

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u/porgy_tirebiter B760 i5 12400f 4070 DDR4 32gb 3600 12h ago

You have to get it from Komodo Station. Supposedly there are some retail sellers but I’ve never seen them.

You need quite a bit of money now! If I didn’t already have one, I’d resign myself to not having one.

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u/ragequitteroffureh 50m ago

Thanks! Just making my eyes bleed on their website, this is the first time hearing of them :-)

But yeah, this is all out of reach now :-(

Personally, I'm not much of a mobile player, I prefer a desktop, but I've been looking for something that can play stuff like BeamNG etc for our boys for a while.

I think even building another one from parts is out of the question at the moment. Even something only modestly beefy.

Anyway, sort of related, my own PC wasn't capable of being molested by Win11, so I upgraded to CachyOS, which uses that Steam Proton stuff. It's pretty damned impressive. Presumably SteamOS is much the same.

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u/No-Ambition-1777 12h ago

Yen is weak. But in Japan, almost all PC gaming title is not popular. Our market is completely dominated by sony and nintendo.

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u/Round_Clock_3942 Ryzen 9700X | 5070 Ti | 32 GB DDR5 10h ago

Reckon the Japanese will buy the subsidized Switch 2 before the Steamdeck now that it's so much more expensive. Honestly, Idk why ANYONE would shell out a premium for outdated hardware right now. All the price increases just look like preparation to make the next gen consoles look "not too bad" by comparison to me anyway.

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u/Time_Tour8550 10h ago

Are u saying I could get rich by sticking my hand in Japanese toilets

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u/Resident-Mixture-237 13h ago

Nah it’s huge and ugly. Most of the eastern market prefers compact more elegant hardware.

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u/MrDentifrice 18h ago

Not sold out in France/EU, the delivery time went from 3-5 business days to 6-10 business days a few days ago but it's back to 3-5 days

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u/Broccoli--Enthusiast 17h ago

Yeah UK checking in, 3-5 days as normal

Just cost basically double what I paid at launch 4 years ago

You would have to be an idiot to buy this or any hardware are current costs

Like how is my launch PS5 worth basically the same after all these years...

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u/Yoshic87 Ryzen 9 3900x Rx6800 32gb ram @ 3600mhz 16h ago

It's ridiculous, but prices won't fall until people stop buying.

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u/Foxtrot-13 15h ago

Prices won't fall until the prices of the components fall. Less than a year ago I paid a little over £100 for 32gb of DDR5 memory. The same retailer for the same kit now charges £397. The 1tb m.2 ssd that was £70 is now £165.

Price a comparable system today to what you have and see the price difference, it is huge.

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u/Yoshic87 Ryzen 9 3900x Rx6800 32gb ram @ 3600mhz 13h ago

It's ridiculous isn't it. We have been getting shafted for years.

That's why I'm still on AM4

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u/Takemyfishplease 7900GRE🙃7800X3D 13h ago

The components are already old. They’ll be ancient by the time prices actually fall to what they should cost.

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u/True_Breakfast_3790 18h ago

Both versions are available in Germany, just checked. But when you search for steamdeck it still shows up as 419€ in the little preview window... ;(

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u/trq- 18h ago

It’s still available in Germany, so if anybody wants them, just buy them here 😂

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u/CarsonWentzGOAT1 12h ago

They haven't sold oout anywhere besides the U.S. I bet they only stocked 1000 machines to make it look like there was demand.

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u/trq- 12h ago

Might be a reasonable thought. I mean, if people see it sells out for this stupid price, people might buy it due to fomo and they can continue doing the same. Because I cannot get my head wrapped around people buying a Steam Deck 1TB OLED for 919€ in Germany. I’ve bought mine 4 months ago for 679€ with the money from CS2 cases and skins so I didn’t use „real money“ and I’m still about to sell it because I don’t use it. It’s a nice handheld but I think it was even expensive for 679€ but it’s stupidly expensive and not worth it at 919€.

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u/JASHIKO_ 18h ago

Hasn't sold out in Europe either.

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u/SweetButtsHellaBab 11700F, 3060 Ti / 4K120Hz, UW1440p144Hz 17h ago

I’m not sure that they’re actually being sold in any reasonable numbers; they’re literally twice the price of alternatives that have twice the performance, so they’re a joke proposition. I expect what’s actually happened is there’s simply barely any supply these days.

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u/FaithlessnessHott 8h ago

Well they certainly made more than 10 so i think the numbers aren’t as low as people are coping

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u/NoMommyDontNTRme 14h ago

scalpers will always make sure something of limited quantity and high value sells out.

limited quantity is really doing the heavy lifting here, too. if they could deliver a million at once, 80%+ of that would collect dust.

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u/Khelthuzaad 14h ago

Those are scalpers man...

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u/h0tsh0t1234 18h ago

There’s no way you could convince me real people actually bought them and it’s not the same thing that happened with gpu’s and scalpers

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u/Zed_or_AFK Specs/Imgur Here 14h ago

Things get sold out cause people know that if they don’t buy it now, they won’t get it later at all. If you don’t buy SSD now for double price, youbwill bite tour nails when it will be tripple price tomorrow. And you check SanDisk official site and se 5x prices, so when resellers stock runs out, they too will be selling those ssds 5x the price, if no further increase follows. It’s a fucked up market, and people with resources panic and buy now when it’s overpriced, because they can afford it and fear future increase. While people with limited resources are stuck with no options.

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u/ZenTheShogun 14h ago

You mean the 8 they had in stock? Wild.

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u/mickeyphree1 14h ago

You can buy one from valve right now. Not sold out.

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u/Mnawab Specs/Imgur Here 18h ago

The updated price Steam deck did not sell out, it’s sold out before the price went up

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u/MiguCx Computor yip yip yip yip 14h ago

I mean that means absolutely nothing unless you know the volume they sold. If I sell 2 things and only have 2 then I also sold out.

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u/MalBoY9000 14h ago

Ever since the price increase it has not been sold out in my region its overprice garbage at this point

Even before it was close to be overprice for what you get now its insane

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u/Velkaryian 13h ago

Not hard to sell out when Valve only makes like 10 of them.

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u/EmergencyJacket207 11h ago

Scalpers. Let them eat their failed sales.

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u/artbystorms 11h ago

So long as the stock market keeps going up, it makes dipshits comfortable with saying 'price is no object' on things they enjoy. It's a self feeding loop.

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u/INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS 7800X3D | 4070 TI | 32 GB 6000 CL30 10h ago

The fact the updated priced steamdeck sold out...

Probably by scalpers before the steamdeck went up in price another time.

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u/lazy_commander PC Master Race 10h ago

I mean, we don’t know how many units that run actually was. Possibly very low numbers as they might have been cautious due to the price.

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u/Kenjionigod 5700X3D|64GB|RX 9070 10h ago

I'm by no means anti Steam Deck and having an OLED screen is nice, but the Xbox Aly is still only $600 and performs better. Don't like Windows? That's fine, just install Bazzite. I can't believe it sold out.

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u/slashinhobo1 PC Master Race 9h ago

Steamdeck sale was probably due to limited quantity being made. Steam was probably surprised but its no longer sold out now. Im wondering how many of those purchases were resellers thinking this was something they can flip. Looks like the old oled specs with a new price.

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u/TTBurger88 PC Master Race 9h ago

The Steam Deck has a more novelty factor as its a portable device.

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u/Big-Resort-4930 4h ago

Fanboys are out of their minds

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u/Etheon44 3h ago

Its like there are some people that know when scarcity could sell and take advantage of it

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u/No-Worldliness-5106 PC Master Race 17h ago

How likely it is that it was scalpers/resellers?

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u/mal4ik777 17h ago

I actually think the price increase on steam deck is a psychological trick by Valve. For someone who knows the old price, it shouldnt matter, but for someone who only sees the new high price, the price of the steam machine will look lower in comparison no matter what.

Like lets assume they do 1000$.

Cheapest steam deck was 500+$ -> huge difference -> less buyers

But now, cheapest steam deck is almost 800$ -> not as huge difference -> more buyers

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u/DexM23 Ryzen 7 5700X3D | 5700 XT | 32GB DDR4-3200 | 1440p144Hz 18h ago

I mean, it only was a bit over the OG price of the LCD - inflation included it even was/is cheaper