There is some bad news for people who have been looking forward to buying a Steam Deck or the upcoming Steam Machine due to shortages of memory and storage. It seems like what people were fearing with RAM prices skyrocketing is finally coming true.
On the Steam Deck’s purchase page, the devices are going out of stock for a lot of the prominent regions, including the US. The reason ultimately circles back to what everyone has been guessing for a while, which is the global memory chip shortages due to excessive demand in AI companies.
Even though companies like OpenAI keep losing billions and people inevitably await the AI bubble to burst, Valve seems to have become the first clear victim of multibillion-dollar companies upscaling the chip supply towards AI data centers.
It is sad to see the Steam Deck go out this way
When Nintendo launched their Switch hardware, the world rejoiced because it was a new portable handheld device in years. For a long time, people thought that the market for portables was dying due to gamers seeking better technological advancements in gaming.
Following suit, Steam launched one of its most successful pieces of hardware ever, the Steam Deck. Which was powered by Linux and using Steam’s own Operating System, the device was a game-changer for playing PC games portably.
But it seems like the time to bid goodbye to this device is coming way earlier than we expected. Thanks to the issue with AI companies hogging the production.
“Steam Deck OLED may be out-of-stock intermittently in some regions due to memory and storage shortages. Steam Deck LCD 256GB is no longer in production, and once sold out, will no longer be available.” Valve stated on their Steam Deck page.
The Steam Machine might be in trouble
At least on the brighter side of things, the Steam Deck may have had a decent run in its lifetime, and second-hand Decks can easily be found if people look around. Besides, the handheld gaming market is not limited to just Valve.
But we can’t find the same sort of optimism around the company’s upcoming hardware, the Steam Machine. Which was being developed in order to be a fine middle ground between PC enthusiasts and Console fanatics.
The hardware was announced last year, but we have not seen anything beyond that, even though it should be launching this year. The primary guess can be that the memory and storage shortages might be hitting Valve like a truck.
The outcome of this delay will probably evolve into a new Valve strategy. Gamers are expecting Valve to price the Steam Machine decently, and anything beyond the bars of regular console pricing would be pointless, as everyone would much prefer opting for a PC.
