Steam Deck’s price jump and Fortnite’s iOS comeback | Week in Views
The games industry moves quickly and while stories may come and go there are some that we just can't let go of…
So, to give those particularly thorny topics a further going over we've created a weekly digest where the members of the PocketGamer.biz team share their thoughts and go that little bit deeper on some of the more interesting things that have happened in mobile gaming in the past week.
Paige Cook
The Steam Deck OLED returns with up to $300 price increase
This week, both versions of the Steam Deck have had a significant price increase. It's another reminder that gaming as a hobby can feel expensive at times. Along with these hardware prices, which continue to rise due to component shortages and rising production costs, games themselves have climbed in price in recent years.
When you factor in that the hardware inside the Steam Deck - even the OLED version - is now a few of years old and that nothing inside the Deck has changed, just the price of the parts it already had, this new £210 price increase feels big.
Of course, these kinds of increases are being felt across the wider tech and gaming industries at the moment. PS5, Xbox, and Nintendo have all increased the prices of hardware, but for me, this one also raises questions about Valve’s future hardware plans.
The biggest one is the Steam Machine, which is still expected to launch this year. If a handheld Steam Deck OLED is now sitting at £799, people will naturally wonder what a full Steam console would cost. Often, consoles are sold at a loss, but if Valve is pricing this as a typical PC value, we are likely to see the most expensive console launch to date.
That said, we’ve already seen examples of premium game hardware still finding an audience. The £799 ROG Ally X got a lot of criticism over its price point, but it still appears to have sold fairly well, which goes to show that a dedicated audience is often willing to pay more for what they want.
I’m sure Valve will find buyers regardless of the Steam Machine’s eventual price point, I might even be one of them. Though I do wonder whether current market conditions and hardware shortages impact what is supposed to be a 2026 release for it.
Aaron Astle
Fortnite’s global iOS comeback drives downloads to eight-year high
It’s been a big first week for Fortnite on iOS.
No, this isn’t 2018. It’s 2026, and Fortnite’s back on the App Store worldwide after almost six years of absence. The ban is over, the game is back, and installs are flooding in.
According to AppMagic estimates, Fortnite achieved 3.4 million App Store downloads in its first week of global availability since the ban. This makes it Fortnite’s fourth-best week in history on the platform, and just shy of its 2018 launch week’s 3.7m.
Saudi Arabia led the comeback thus far with almost half a million downloads in seven days. France ranked second over the period at 366,000 downloads, followed by the UK at 307,000. Notably, the US ranked ninth, with Apple users already having access to the game for a year.
On the downloads front, this first week was Fornite’s best on iOS in eight years. As for revenue, it was the best in six weeks. Only time will tell whether all these new players actually start spending.
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