Yup, I would have pulled the trigger if there was a bit of a discount.
The main reason I didn’t get a steam deck is the device is getting very long in the tooth and I don’t really want to pay full price for what is fundamentally a 3 year old computer which is likely to get a platform update immediately.
It would be like buying a brand new iPhone for full RRP from Apple in August - you’d only do that if you really really needed a phone and could not wait a few weeks.
I ended up with the Lego Star Wars Venator mentioned in the Lego thread, was £560, 1/3 off to £373 and £30 cashback via quidco. That’s a Black Friday deal if I ever saw one.
This is really the issue it's a 3 year old device now and they are still asking for it the same price, where other devices have even halved in price in a year and more powerful than it. I just think they are basically trying to keep any stock now before their new device is introduced too, yes they say they have no device incoming but they also said that when the OLED versions came out later too..
So can't really trust valve regarding new devices, then they bring out same device again in white at a more inflated price. What's next a red and blue one too with same specs.. ?
The Steam deck OLED should be now for 512GB £375 and the 1TB £450. The remaining LCD 256GB model should be £250-275 now..
You can buy a Asus Ally 512GB Z1 Extreme for £399, with a case and screen protector right now, or a MSI Claw 1TB with a free £65 game and 6 months Ubisoft subscription and another £45 game (now £20 on sale) for £399.. Then the Legion Go too is on serious discount too and can be found with free dock and screen protector. All more powerful devices for less.
Seems Valve has either lost the plot or have a new device incoming so keeping the price as is as there maybe not many more left till they release a new model they keep saying isn't coming, but every other handheld maker has one or more new devices coming start of next year or even this December with the new claw models coming (2 new devices with latest APU's 7" and 8"), then Lenovo with also 2 new devices a 7" and a 8" too.. Are they really trying to compete with all these new devices with this 3 year old device and will be 4 year old next year ?
Also all these devices can install bazzite and basically become a more powerful steam deck with same Linux setup...
https://bazzite.gg/
or the best of both worlds dual boot Linux and windows..
A shame really, I was going to get one, but after seeing all these new price drops on better/more powerful devices, it makes no sense, unless valve had a price drop too on the steam decks. I think they have just lost a lot of future customers due to this mistake and these customers are now in hand with one of the discounted devices this black Friday and weeks before. Then these same customers will move on to one of the new devices next year again when discounted again as they should be, Valve seems to think 3 years holding the same price for a device with huge competition around it is sane .. humm well we will see if this master plan works out for them or they will end up out of the handheld/hardware business by end of next year. Steam OS is all they have really and that is now available in many flavours of Linux versions designed for handhelds now and works and looks the same as steam OS.
Yes annoyed as was waiting for them to put a sale on and would have been nice to support them as they did help bring back handheld gaming devices to the masses again, that are not Nintendo based... Hope they wake up before it's too late and not make promises they also can't keep, they still to this day can't make windows fully functional on their steam decks as they said it would be, while windows based handhelds now basically have steam OS.. in a short time, less than a year really since the mass windows handhelds came out (ASUS,MSI and Lenovo)..
, considering every other handheld had a sale for last few weeks and some even hitting lower prices than the Steam deck with higher specs. Strange move from Valve, as by the new year even more competition with the new handhelds with new APU's, Z2 Extreme etc.
