$949 Steam Deck OLED is just the expensive beginning – MSI marketing lead warns there's "much room for another price hike" in handheld consoles

We are in the unyielding winter of $949 Steam Deck OLEDs, $1,049 Steam Machines, and I'm finding myself missing $1 pizza more than ever. My cat is no doubt devising how to sell my kidneys as he notices the way I scoff at prices on even small amenities like his salmon cans, and all I can do now is pray he fails – especially since MSI product marketing lead Andy Chu predicts this year's price hikes will only get worse.

Speaking to FRVR in time for the release of handheld console MSI Claw 8 EX AI+, a Steam Deck competitor with its own kidney pain-inducing price tag of $1,800, Chu says, "There's much room for another price hike," and that the handheld market in particular "is now entering a time where it's time to take a closer look at what it can offer."

Personally, I'd love it if it could offer something under $1,000. Chu seems mostly concerned with the fact that the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ provides gamers with something new, and he stresses that the console "promises zero compromise between the resolution and graphic settings and also the frames [per second]" to FRVR. These are all beautiful things, sure. However, I think the average US resident's ability to pay rent is nice, too.

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So GamesRadar+ hardware editor Phil Hayton argues no one should be paying over a grand for any handheld this Prime Day; Phil says, "I don't like feeding the beast that is tech price inflation, so in an effort to signal to retailers and portable PC makers that today's price tags are not okay, I like to check out open-boxed and refurbished options."

If you prefer your hardware sparkling clean, though, you might want to start hunkering down between pillars of $100 bills to prepare for what Chu predicts will be "a tough year for us and for the gamers."

"All I can say is we have tried every approach to get the memory and also storage at a lower cost," he asserts. $1,800 was simply the best MSI could do to be "as affordable as possible," and I believe that. I'm also horrified.

$1,049 Steam Machine is still a "good value," Valve engineer says, even though it was supposed to be $789 like the Steam Deck.

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