• 1984@lemmy.today
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    2 months ago

    I think you shouldn’t buy a steam deck and instead save that money. It looks to me that there will be more and more inflation and food may start to become real expensive, specially if hormuz doesn’t open up and fertilizer can’t get through. Trump will never open Hormuz because it’s part of the American strategy to keep it closed.

    We are in the stage where all the systems are being broken intentionally, so buying a steam deck now… Seems misguided. You may need that money for food. Or your parents may need it.

    Im still on a computer from 2017 but luckily with upgraded memory and graphics card from before this shit started, so it runs games very good.

    • Tarambor@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Food is already going to go up in the future even if they opened the Straits today. Crops have sowing and harvesting seasons. Miss the sowing season because of a lack of fertiliser and you’ve no harvest. And those windows for sowing are fixed and known, you can’t just go “oh I’ve got fertiliser now so I can go plant my crops.” If you’re out of the sowing window you can plant the seed but it’s not going to germinate and grow. And for a lot of crops we’re in the middle of that season right now.

      • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        yup. you might just say fuck it, we’re not doing corn this year we’re doing cilantro just so you don’t let the field sit fallow an entire season.

      • 1984@lemmy.today
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        2 months ago

        Almost as if this crisis is engineered, just like all the others.

        Lets see if we also get some virus crisis, I think its about time again to scare the masses.

  • nullify3112@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I think that’s it’s a slap in the face to remind us all that Valve is a for profit company.

    They are supporting Linux, they make repairable hardware, proton is amazing, but they’re doing it so they can own the full stack and not have to deal with another party’s transaction fees when selling games.

    They aren’t going to sell a product if they don’t make a profit. They want to make more profit. They have the potential to enshitify at any moment. We can all be excited about Steam hardware but how is it different than Apple locking its customers in a walled garden?

    What happens if they decide to make all the games you bought unavailable for licensing reasons? What happens if they shut down and suddenly all your games are gone? What happens if they lock their hardware?

    • Nibodhika@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I mean, no one ever doubted Valve was a for profit company.

      They aren’t going to sell a product if they don’t make a profit.

      Obvious

      They want to make more profit.

      O don’t think that’s what’s happening here, RAM prices are ridiculously high, and the Deck has RAM and SSD. We also know they’re selling it close to cost so they wouldn’t have been able to take the hit on those increases, and the price increase seems to be exactly what the components have increased in price.

      They have the potential to enshitify at any moment.

      That’s also true, and something we should be weary of, but I don’t think it’s warranted on this case.

      how is it different than Apple locking its customers in a walled garden?

      Because their hardware is not locked. You can do whatever you want with your Deck. Wanna pirate games? Go ahead, wanna install windows in it? Be my guest. That’s part of the reason why Valve can’t sell these cheaper than manufacturing cost like most consoles are, because it’s an open architecture people would just buy it in bulk to do servers and shit like they did with the PS3 before it was locked down for this exact reason.

      What happens if they decide to make all the games you bought unavailable for licensing reasons? What happens if they shut down and suddenly all your games are gone What happens if they lock their hardware?

      What happens if the government starts abducting children for their secret brainwashing institution? What happens if they shut down all personal own property? What happens if they lock all of the frontier?.. Don’t you think you’re overreacting a little bit to RAM being more expensive and a product that has RAM becoming more expensive too?

    • zergtoshi@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Steam Deck and SteamOS are no walled garden.
      That’s the difference.
      Feel free to run Bazzite on the SD, or even Windows, lol.

      If all my Steam games are gone, I continue playing games from my GOG library through Heroic Games Launcher.
      Again, see: no walled garden.

    • Nalivai@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Well, they’re not gaming charity, sure. I don’t think anybody expected them to sell their hardware at a loss.

    • encelado748@feddit.org
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      2 months ago

      16gb of ram cost 100$ more now. The SSD cost another 100$ more. We know they are for profit. Steam deck is just too expensive to make. That’s it. Why you feel entitled to getting hardware cheaper than production cost?

      • zergtoshi@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        It sucks that the SD got more expensive, but your calculation about relevant component price hikes is spot-on.
        Blaming Valve for that is a kind of victim blaming, because Valve would love to bring even more users in their eco system through affordable hardware that just works.

    • Peluri96@feddit.org
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      2 months ago

      Well, you are right and that’s why one should also support smaller stores like gog. However I think this is not valves corporate greed but more a hardware price increase thing. I think the reason why valve is okay to its customers is because its a private company and not a publicly traded one. The moment Gaben leaves and another head of the company moves valve to the stock market, the ship is wrecked.

      • thingsiplay@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        A small, but important detail. :D I always try to use the correct decimal separator for the unit.

        • tal@lemmy.today
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          2 months ago

          Some years back, I had a friend who had lived in Germany for some time who came to the US and did a cash transfer without thinking at an ATM and couldn’t figure out at first why her account got frozen. She’d used a comma instead of a period when entering the amount of money to be moved.

        • ricdeh@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          It is called a decimal separator. Should be obvious why languages that use a point for it would call it “decimal point”. Other languages refer to it as comma.

          • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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            2 months ago

            It really bugged me until I realize it basically means 919 euros AND 0 cents.

            Whereas in North America we basically would say $919.99 meaning $919 dollars and 99% of a dollar.

  • Airfried@piefed.social
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    2 months ago

    It has been out of stock since Christmas or something. At least here. I guess they just can’t produce any for a decent price anymore. Pretty sure that goes for most manufacturers. It’s the reality we live in now. Still a bonkers price for hardware that was considered somewhat outdated 5 years ago. The Steam Machine for under $1k feels like a pipe dream at this point.

  • Soulphite@reddthat.com
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    2 months ago

    Prices of everything’s going up and up… guess what’s staying exactly the damn same?

    Wages. Nah, dawg. We ain’t buying your shit if you don’t spread the wealth.

      • MoogleMaestro@lemmy.zip
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        2 months ago

        You can thank legal weed for that. Oregon weed prices have stayed pretty cool and low for a long while now. Helps that this stuff is pretty easy to grow.

        • naeap@sopuli.xyz
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          2 months ago

          Not much legal weed, were I’m from
          Still the price stayed the same since now…nearly 25 years
          With good connections or in bulk, it got even cheaper than before

          Not sure how that works out with rising energy prices.
          Maybe the switch to LEDs saved us here

    • teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
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      2 months ago

      Don’t worry, trump controls the fed now. He’ll make sure the dollar becomes worthless, and everyone will be billionaires!

    • lectricleopard@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Can’t you buy a replacement screen and upgrade it yourself?

      Edit: looks like ifixit just has led screens.

      • LucidNightmare@anarchist.nexus
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        2 months ago

        I believe the Steam Deck has a different frame for the OLED in such a slight way that an OLED screen (that isn’t specifically made for the LCD model anyway) won’t fit or something like that.

        I have an LCD and looked into it at one point, but I’m sure you can find it if needed.

  • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I just…

    Its such a weird place to be in life to have bought technology years ago and to have it be more valuable now than it used to be. I don’t think I’d would have bought a steam deck at this pricepoint, whereas I bought two at the lower price point (the LED, then the OLED)

    • CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      I was an OG pre-order and this price point would have been a big fat hell nah from me. Even more true 4+ years later.

        • tal@lemmy.today
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          2 months ago

          And that’s not counting the NVMe, which also has seen major increases in market price.

          I got a 128GB version last year with an 8TB NVMe drive. Was, IIRC, $2,500 at that point.

          Now it’s $4,178.

          • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Yeah I saw the price hike and I didn’t even bother going further with the configuration. I could do a major home improvement project at these prices. The only fear I have is that its only going to get worse.

    • Lemmayng@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Same, and I too bought the LED and OLED. I sold my LED for $420 (with the new 1 TB SSD from the OLED I bought, added back grips and the original dock) to my friend cause he wanted to get one for his brother.

      • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Same, and I too bought the LED and OLED. I sold my LED for $420 (with the new 1 TB SSD from the OLED I bought, added back grips and the original dock) to my friend cause he wanted to get one for his brother.

        I gave the LED one to my partner and now we can play cozy games side by side in bed.

        • oopsgodisdeadmybad@lemmy.zip
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          2 months ago

          Neither did I, but lately it’s been docked since I bent a CPU pin on my regular PC and have yet to unbend it, so it’s been a temporary replacement. OLED wouldn’t have made a difference in most of its use time in my case.

          • doctordevice@lemmy.ca
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            2 months ago

            Just wake from Bluetooth. Which is honestly crazy they didn’t include it to begin with.

            • oopsgodisdeadmybad@lemmy.zip
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              2 months ago

              I didn’t know that wasn’t originally possible. I don’t use Bluetooth with it at all though. My headset and the controller I was using both has dongles, and now I use the Steam controller with it, so no change.

              The mouse and keyboard are just regular corded ones as well.

              • doctordevice@lemmy.ca
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                2 months ago

                Wait, are you able to wake it with your Steam Controller? I haven’t been able to. I’m not on the beta OS though, I was having too many issues with some games on it.

      • CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        Protip, anything you want, just in general - get it “now”. Especially if you’re in the US, there will never be a better time. We’ve not yet begun to feel the supply chain impacts from Iran. Shit’s fucked, it’s not slowing down, and there’s no wand that can wave to fix it.

        • Phantaloons@piefed.zip
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          2 months ago

          Yep, been buying used kindles for cheap and jailbreaking them, set for reading forever, and sd cards and hard drives. Let it ride.

          • BreakerSwitch@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Off topic, but you seem likely to have opinions: If I was looking for a device to read in/before bed (ideally not a backlit screen) that would be used for more than just text (comics, tabletop rpg pdf content that would contain tables and illustrations, etc), are there any obvious choices, or things to look for? I’m comfortable jailbreaking, or even performing minor hard mods, but I haven’t really shopped for an ereader before so I frankly have no idea what to look for

            • Phantaloons@piefed.zip
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              2 months ago

              The issue lies in power. Lit screen or not, the device needs to be able to call up 500MB or more for a comic series, more, way more for an omnibus or collection. For that, I haven’t found an ebook reader barring BOOX products, which are higher-end, luxury Android ereaders with power to match their cost.

              A Kindle 4 is a great ereader with a lot of life left - if you like books. Manga snd comics?.. stick to a modern ereader or a tablet.

  • PaupersSerenade@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    I was really hoping to get a steam deck when I got a job after a string of job losses. This sucks so fucking much. Can barely afford the bread, and can only wish to attend a circus.

  • Default Username@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 months ago

    The main reason the Steam Deck was popular to begin with was that it was a relatively affordable gaming PC in a handheld form factor. It has been getting less and less affordable as more time has gone on.

    Going to be a very tough sell from now on.

    • Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      There’s better handhelds out there now, but they’re more expensive. The Lenovo legion go 2 is supposed to be good if you install bazzite or steam os on it but the top end models are like £2000

    • Zorque@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I mean, it was also popular because it was relatively open in a field of closed handhelds. You could play, basically, whatever you wanted on it. Price was a factor as well… but it was never cheap. Just less expensive than other options.

      • IMALlama@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I bought an ally x about a year and a half ago. At the time it commanded a substantial premium over the OLED deck, but it had the specs to back it up. Since then the price gap has closed and Asus has released another version of the Ally. Asus isn’t the only other handheld maker in town and you can install Bazzite or Steam OS on most of the deck alternatives. Unless you want an out of the box experience that doesn’t involve windows, I am not sure the price point for four year old hardware makes any sense.

    • ripcord@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I definitely wouldn’t have gotten one if it was more than the $350 I paid. Although after I got one I would have considered paying more.

      Noooo way would I pay $750+

    • Mereo@piefed.ca
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      2 months ago

      Nah. It’s all relative. If everything goes up accordingly, then steamdeck will remain a good buy.

      • 4am@lemmy.zip
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        2 months ago

        That doesn’t magically give me money to buy any alternatives with.

        All this shit is Sam Altman’s fault, slimy fuck

        • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          Totally get it. But, being real, budget is always a relative term. I wouldn’t have been able to afford the cheapest version before, period. Mine was gifted to me. Items like this are only “budget” if you actually have a budget for a one off gaming device in the first place.

          I’m in the same boat as you if mine dies. No way in hell could I swing even the prices on the LCD version if they still offered them, much less the oled. It’s what? 750+ USD for the lower tier version? That’s almost my fucking mortgage. The LCD would still sit at the 600+ range most likely.

          And the deck is technically a full PC if you get a dock and set it up, but that’s still a damn big outlay for a low tier PC.

          So, yeah, fuck Altman and every other dipshit pushing hopped up llms like they’re the second coming.

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 months ago

      At this stage, the price hike of the steam deck is probably more about making the price of the upcoming Steam Box and VR headset look like an easier pill to swallow, and not about actually needing to raise the price of the steam deck.

      • Default Username@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 months ago

        Could be both, but I think that both RAM and SSDs have gotten so expensive due to the AI bubble that even high volume manufacturers are having to raise prices by an unreasonable amount to stay profitable.

        • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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          2 months ago

          You’re not wrong, but I don’t think it went up $300 over what it was when they released the OLED model. The micron 2230 1 tb ssd is like $200 right now (micron was a major provider of 1 TB steam deck storage, but Valve used several) and that’s what I can get it for. They were like $140 when the OLED came out in 2023, they went below $100 like a nearly a year later. Ram has definitely shot way up, but I doubt even that has straight up 5x on the price, to constitute the rest of that $300 increase.

          I’ll still say this will be a lot more about making the steam box have less sticker shock.

          • Axolotl@feddit.it
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            2 months ago

            Companies usually do not pay the same prices as an end customer, so they probably didn’t paid $100 but way less (i know a dude with a company that pay WAY less an SSD than what i can find myself, like 40 instead of 120 and he isn’t a big tech company, it was before the price hell) and probably the companies that produce SSD and RAM made the prices more similiar to the ones end customers pay because it’s just more profitable to sell to AI companies instead of Valve

  • ouRKaoS@lemmy.today
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    2 months ago

    Man, I upgraded my 64gb base model to a 2tb drive years ago & it’s still going strong. An upgrade wasn’t really on the radar, but now it’s definitely not going to happen!

  • Pieisawesome@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 months ago

    But the cheapest one and then price out SSDs for upgrading the storage.

    It’s super easy, undo some screws, pop the back, unscrew SSD, move the EMF shield to the new one, pop it in and then reverse the process.

    Easy peasy.

    • Chloé 🥕@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 months ago

      even the base model is 1130$ without tax now 😭

      i wished the steam machine would be below 1000$, but at this rate it will be over 2000 lol

      • iamthetot@piefed.ca
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        2 months ago

        Yeah I just commented the other day I was originally cautiously optimistic for CA$1,000 machine or frame but I just absolutely cannot see that happening now, I would be shocked if it’s under CA$1,500.