Steam Deck's £349 price point was "painful", Gabe Newell says Eurogamer.net If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. Steam Deck's £349 price point was "painful", Gabe Newell says But "clearly a critical aspect". News by Tom Phillips Deputy Editor Updated on 16 Jul 2021 106 comments Valve boss Gabe Newell has described hitting the Steam Deck PC's basic price point of £349/$399 as "painful" but "critical". The Steam Deck was announced by Valve last night, with pricier options set to cost £459/$529 for a 250GB SSD and £569/$649 for a 512GB SSD. In an interview with IGN, Newell said Valve had set out to be "very aggressive" with its pricing - the basic model is just $50 more than Nintendo's significantly less powerful Switch OLED - but that it had been tough to achieve. Watch on YouTube "I want to pick this up and say, oh, it all works. It's all fast..." Newell said. "And then price point was secondary and painful. But that was pretty clearly a critical aspect to it." Valve hardware director Shreya Liu said Steam Deck was "designed with that [the price] in mind, and we worked very, very hard to achieve the price point that we're at". Yesterday, Valve compared the Steam Deck's technical capabilities to those of a gaming laptop capable of running the current crop of AAA games. Reveal videos for the handheld showed it running Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Control. Introducing Steam Deck: powerful, portable PC gaming starting at $399. Designed by Valve, powered by Steam. Shipping December 2021.Learn more at https://t.co/ZOTx3KUCVK and reserve yours tomorrow. #SteamDeck pic.twitter.com/jcgbaKfT9c- Steam (@Steam) July 15, 2021 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings Perhaps unsurprisingly, Newell did not detail the profit Valve will see from the sale of a Steam Deck at £349/$399 - or what features it might have been able to include at a more premium price point. Still, Newell mentioned Steam Deck was a long-term initiative for the company - suggesting Valve was looking to a more traditional console model which becomes far more profitable via the ongoing sale of games over time. "A lot of people have overpriced things and killed the opportunity, and sort of convinced people that it's an uninteresting category from the get-go," Newell concluded. "We're doing this for the long haul." Become a Eurogamer subscriber and get your first month for £1 Get your first month for £1 (normally £3.99) when you buy a Standard Eurogamer subscription. Enjoy ad-free browsing, merch discounts, our monthly letter from the editor, and show your support with a supporter-exclusive comment flair! Support us View supporter archive More News Google announces cloud gaming Chromebooks less than a fortnight after Stadia shutdown GeForce Now preinstalled. 3 Atari will hold RollerCoaster Tycoon rights for another decade Ups and downs. 7 Lady Dimitrescu will be a tad smaller in Resident Evil Village's Mercenaries DLC Level the playing field. 1 Overwatch 2 suffers another DDoS attack and character roster bugs Mei Mei. 13 Latest Articles Digital Foundry Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090: a new level in graphics performance The Digital Foundry video review - and how the new GPU champion delivers for 4K 120fps gaming. Google announces cloud gaming Chromebooks less than a fortnight after Stadia shutdown GeForce Now preinstalled. 3 Feature Evercore Heroes wants to wind people up the right way "There's less rage at them, because they didn't end your fun." Genshin Impact Path of Gleaming Jade dates, login event rewards Including other anniversary rewards and how to claim them. Supporters Only Premium only Off Topic: Take a minute to appreciate Cookin' with Coolio's incredible scallops recipe. What a great book. Premium only Off Topic: Reading City of Glass in comic form "Where exactly am I going?" Premium only Off Topic: Il Buco is a transporting film about a really big hole Underlands. Off-Topic Netflix handled Sandman brilliantly It was Dreamy. 9 Buy things with globes on them And other lovely Eurogamer merch in our official store! Explore our store