The ongoing AI-driven memory and storage crisis has severely impacted PC and gaming hardware availability and prices. Now, Valve has acknowledged that RAM and memory shortages have impacted Steam Deck OLED stock in the US. With Valve halting the prodcution of LCD models in December, all Steam Deck models are currently sold out in the US.
Last week, the official Steam Deck store page in the US showed all three Steam Deck Models — the 256GB LCD, 512GB OLED, and 1TB OLED — out of stock. Valve has now confirmed that the ongoing chip crisis has impacted the availability of its popular handheld.
“Steam Deck OLED may be out-of-stock intermittently in some regions due to memory and storage shortages,” Valve said in a note on the on the US Steam Deck store page (via @Wario64). Valve did not specify when Steam Deck OLED models would be back in stock.
Steam Machine Delay
Earlier this month, Valve also confirmed that the memory and storage shortages may end up delaying the launch of the Steam Machine. The PC/console hybrid was supposed to launch in “early 2026”, but the launch window has been readjusted to “first half of the year”.
In its announcement, Valve said it had planned on sharing Steam Machine’s pricing and launch date by now, but the rising hardware prices forced it to “revisit” those details. The company has had a hard time finalising the price of the Steam Machine. Valve has previously said the device will be priced like a PC with the “same level of performance”.
In December, Valve announced that it had stopped production of its most affordable Steam Deck model, the 256GB Steam Deck LCD. The LCD model, which comes in at $399 in the US, will no longer be available once it is sold out. Memory shortage has now affected the availability of the 512GB and 1TB Steam Deck OLED models, priced $549 and $649, respectively, as well.
The launch of the Steam Machine may be delayed
Photo Credit: Valve
RAM, Memory Shortages
Memory and storage shortages have hit the gaming hardware market hard with prices for RAM and SSD soaring. Both Sony and Microsoft could reportedly end up delaying their next-generation consoles due to the ongoing chip crisis. A Bloomberg report Monday claimed that Sony was considering delaying the PS6 to 2028 or even 2029. The same report also claimed that Nintendo could hike the price of the Switch 2 in 2026.
With the rapid expansion of AI data centres, which require large amounts of high-performance memory, consumer hardware market is facing severe shortages of RAM and SSD storage globally. Amidst dwindling supplies, the prices of memory and storage have skyrocketed.
Prices of GPUs have also gone up considerably in recent months amidst short supply. Both Sony and Microsoft raised the prices of their current-generation consoles, the PS5 and the Xbox Series S/X, last year. The PS6 and the next-gen Xbox were initally believed to be targeting launch in 2027, but could now be delayed beyond 2028.
