Steam Machine price and release date fears after key Valve update

Valve has given a key update on the future of some of its consoles and it could mean bad news for Steam Machine's price and release date.

On Valve's page for Steam Deck consoles, a new update on it said: "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."

This comes after Valve confirmed earlier in February plans for the Steam Machine have been altered because of a shortage of crucial components such as RAM, GPU and memory.

This has been caused by huge tech companies investing vast sums of money into building artificial intelligence (AI) data centres and it's causing big problems for the dates and pricing of Valve's suite of hardware.

In a recent update on the Steam Machine, Valve said: "When we announced these products in November, we planned on being able to share specific pricing and launch dates by now. But the memory and storage shortages you've likely heard about across the industry have rapidly increased since then.

"The limited availability and growing prices of these critical components mean we must revisit our exact shipping schedule and pricing (especially around Steam Machine and Steam Frame).

"Our goal of shipping all three products in the first half of the year has not changed. But we have work to do to land on concrete pricing and launch dates that we can confidently announce, being mindful of how quickly the circumstances around both of those things can change."

At the time, this caused fears among gamers the Steam Machine could cost a lot more and release much later than first expected.

And on a post about Valve's latest update in the Gaming Subreddit, fears about the future of the Steam Machine have reared again.

One said: "Looks like this will be the new normal for a few years at least... Steam Machine picked the worst time to be announced and released it's going to be f***** as they will have to price it higher."

"Which means if it's making sourcing difficult for already contracted hardware - the Frame / Machine is either getting a very limited launch run or a big delay," a second declared.

Elsewhere, a third commented: "AI is taking our jobs and our hobbies."

"Man, this AI bubble can't explode soon enough," a fourth commented. "First, the RAM and now WD sold out on their hard drives for this year. What's next? AI is cool for research purposes but why they keep trying pushing the generative s*** on us? I feel bad for my roommate who wants to build his PC this year."

And a fifth agreed: "So because of AI, nothing is available, stuff that is available is overpriced as s***, our jobs are being taken by AI and so are our hobbies. Just GREAT."

Elsewhere from indy100:

• Steam Machine: Everything we know so far about Valve's new console
• Half-Life 3 seemingly teased yet again by Valve

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