Steam Deck won't get a price hike just yet, says Gabe Newell

Gabe Newell, head of Valve, has confirmed that despite the popularity and scarcity of its new handheld system, there are currently no plans to increase the retail price of Steam Deck.

"I mean, part of what you do with pricing is you're making a promise to customers. [...] But we wouldn't expect to be adjusting the SKU pricing," Newell told IGN in an interview, acknowledging that initially pricing the system had been "painful" but "critical". 

It'll be good news for Steam fans who hope to lay their hands on the handheld PC but struggled to get the model they wanted in the pre-order scrum.

Newell has, however, acknowledged the team has looked at introducing "higher-end configurations" at a later date.

"Absolutely. [...] That's the great thing about the PC market, right?" Newell said. "That it just continues [...] Like a year from now, AMD is going to have better parts, right? A year from now, all the component suppliers are going to either expand capacity, expand performance, or reduce costs. 

"So, we're absolutely going to ride that as hard as we can. That's part of the thing about being in the PC space - everybody's essentially driving everybody else's price performance improvements over time."

In related news, yesterday Newell confirmed that there are currently no plans for the company to introduce a game subscription service, like Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass or EA's EA Play.

Despite the release of its highly-anticipated and all-new handheld system, Newell says that while he understands that subscription services are "clearly a popular option" with some gamers, he doesn't "think it's something [Valve] needs to do" despite their popularity.

He did, however, suggest that the company would be open to working with third-party partners such as Microsoft to "get [subscription services] on Steam".

Still undecided on Steam Deck? In our Steam Deck review, we said: "Steam Deck is everything Valve promised, a handheld with all the potential of a PC and a huge library of games ready to go," giving it 4.5 stars out of 5.

Looking for something new to get stuck into? Here are the best PC games right now.