"These price increases have multiple intertwining causes, some direct and some less so: inflation, pandemic-era supply crunches, the unpredictable trade policies of the Trump administration, and a gradual shift among console makers away from selling hardware at a loss or breaking even in the hopes that game sales will subsidize the hardware. And you never want to rule out good old shareholder-prioritizing corporate greed.
But one major factor, both in the price increases and in the reduction in drastic “slim”-style redesigns, is technical: the death of Moore’s Law and a noticeable slowdown in the rate at which processors and graphics chips can improve."
Tbh the only consoles I’ve been really interested in lately are the switch and steam deck, simply because they’re also mobile devices.
The Steam Deck is the only decent console because it’s not locked down.
That’s because it’s not a console.
The Steam Deck is basically a PC. You can get mini PCs with APUs of a similar performance for very low prices these days. That won’t perform like a current gen console but it’s a cheap gaming machine with a huge selection of low cost games and you won’t have to pay for multiplayer.
And those mini PC’s are mobile with built-in screens and controls?
That would be handhelds. Mini PCs are desktop devices. They often use the same processors as handhelds and laptops, though.
Oh man you’re so close
I mean after Valve released the Steam Deck, Asus, Lenovo, MSI–to name just a few–followed suit with at least an iteration. Asus has the Ally and Ally X, Lenovo now have 3 models, and MSI only has 1.
I can’t recall if there are any other big brands handheld PCs, but there’s definitely Chinese ones.