Image via Séamus Bellamy At this point, "big games company makes its hardware more expensive out of nowhere and for no reason" feels like as much of a certainty as the sun rising in the east. For some unquantifiable reason, though, it just feels different when Valve does it. Valve has long had a reputation as the most pro-consumer games company out there, and while that conveniently ignores the fact that they literally invented lootboxes and paid mods, they do tend to be less scummy than most. For one, they're privately owned, which means there's no pressure from investors to enshittify themselves, and for two, they're richer than God thanks to taking a cut of every single Steam transaction. This is probably why there hasn't been a new Portal in fourteen years, but on the other hand it means you can buy the last one for under a dollar in the constant Steam sales they run. Which is why it seems a little odd that they're joining the likes of Xbox, Nintendo and Sony in jacking up the price of their Steam Deck.…