This week has left us with a big, big price hike for the Steam Deck OLED. The handheld PC now starts at €779 for the 512 GB version and goes up to €919 for the 1 TB model. This sharp price hike was caused by rising costs for memory and storage.
The news clearly didn’t go over well with gamers. So much so that Epic Games decided to weigh in via a message from its CEO. Indeed, Tim Sweeney posted a message full of irony on X.
“Everyone’s being too harsh here. There has been a significant rise in the cost of components that Steam customer spending ultimately funds, and economic trends have created severe disruptions in the component parts supply chain for megayachts.”
Sweeney is openly mocking Gabe Newell, Valve’s CEO, who purchased a $500 million superyacht last year. Furthermore, some analysts estimate that Steam allows Valve to rake in over $10 billion in revenue per year, which underscores the unfairness of the Steam Deck price hike.
That being said, Tim Sweeney isn’t one to attack Newell directly, as many internet users have been quick to remind him that Epic laid off more than 1,000 employees last March.
