Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney slams Valve over Steam Deck price hikes — mocks founder Gabe Newell over rising costs of megayachts

Video Games PC Gaming Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney slams Valve over Steam Deck price hikes — mocks founder Gabe Newell over rising costs of megayachts News By Jowi Morales published 29 May 2026 Is the Steam Deck price hike funding Gabe Newell's expensive hobby? When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works . (Image credit: Valve) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 32 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Epic Games' outspoken CEO Tim Sweeney has taken to X to criticize Valve over its recent price hike of the Steam Deck. Valve raised the prices ofits handheld this week , with the 1TB model now costing $949. Even though many consoles have seen their prices jump by $50 to $100 in recent months, this is still nothing compared to the extra $240 to $300 that Valve slapped on the Steam Deck . The increases have been driven by the memory and chip shortages stemming from the AI infrastructure build-out, but Sweeney wasted no time criticizing Valve on X for the much higher price increases it applied. Everyone’s being too harsh here. There has been a significant rise in the cost of components that Steam customer spending ultimately funds, and economic trends have created severe disruptions in the component parts supply chain for megayachts. pic.twitter.com/w8iHVdSatK May 28, 2026 While his post initially mentioned the significant rise in component costs, which everyone is suffering from, he eventually ended it with “severe disruptions in the component parts supply chain for megayachts” in an apparent potshot at Valve CEO Gabe Newell’s penchant for superyachts. While Newell's Valve is behind some of the most notable game franchises in history, including Half-Life, Portal, Left 4 Dead, and Counter-Strike, he also has a love for massive sea-going vessels. Luxury Launches