Valve has been preparing its Steam Machine for several years, but a recent update regarding the Steam Deck casts a shadow over its launch. While the price of the future machine has still not been communicated, major tensions over electronic components could complicate its availability.
The manufacturer recently indicated on the official Steam Deck page: “The Steam Deck OLED may be temporarily unavailable in certain regions due to memory and storage shortages.” A message that seems innocuous at first glance, but which raises an essential question: could the Steam Machine suffer the same fate?
Memory shortage now affects gaming hardware
The problem is not limited to Valve. The entire electronics market is under increasing pressure on RAM and NVMe SSDs. RAM has become particularly difficult to obtain. Prices have risen sharply in recent months, making assembling a gaming PC significantly more expensive. NVMe SSDs, used in particular in recent Steam Deck models, are also affected.
This tension finds its origin in the rise of artificial intelligence. Big tech companies are massively purchasing memory to train their language models at scale, throwing the global supply chain out of balance.
The Steam Machine in a delicate position
The Steam Machine aims to combine the simplicity of a console and the power of a PC. This positioning involves the use of high-performance and modern components, potentially exposed to the same constraints as those of the Steam Deck.
Valve has already postponed the announcement of the price of the machine, officially in order to reassess its costs. If tensions on memory and storage persist, the final price could be impacted. Beyond the price, availability constitutes the other major issue. Recent console launches have shown how strong demand combined with limited supply can create prolonged shortages.
The precedent of broken consoles
The PS5 and Xbox Series X/S suffered massive shortages upon release, in the midst of a global health crisis. More recently, the Switch 2 also encountered supply difficulties during its launch. In this context, the Steam Machine could also experience a live start-up, especially if demand proves to be high.
A launch under close surveillance
One element could nevertheless work in Valve’s favor: the possibility that production resources are prioritized towards the Steam Machine to the detriment of the Steam Deck.
This would ensure a more stable launch. However, the continued absence of an official price casts doubt on the true state of the supply chain. If the current shortage continues, the Steam Machine could become one of the most coveted devices…and hardest to obtain upon release.