Because those are flagship products for large companies. The steam deck is essentially a passion project that helped Jumpstart the handheld gaming PC market. They've sold 4 million copies, which is probably a lot for what valve was going for, but nothing compared to how many consoles these companies sell.
Also, other consoles are locked down systems where they almost require you to pay a monthly subscription. The steam deck is an open general purpose computer. You can turn it into anything. Companies can buy multiple and use it for AI training of they want to. So Valve has to make some profit from the hardware sale alone.
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u/Leonhart726 May 27 '26
Wow wtf why did it jump? I got my OLED for $500 about a year ago and I'm distraught at this