Valve Says Memory Shortages Are Still Limiting Steam Machine Supply

Valve says memory and storage supply problems are still getting worse, and that’s putting a hard cap on how many Steam Machines it can build. In an interview with Bloomberg, engineers at the company said demand from AI data centers has made component sourcing tougher than expected.

“We’re basically building everything we can get our hands on,” Valve engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais said, adding that memory capacity is the main limit. Another Valve engineer, Yazan Aldehayyat, said retail pricing is lagging behind what Valve is seeing in bulk supply by “at least three to six months.”

Valve says the shortage won’t change the Steam Machine roadmap, though it has already affected the device’s price and availability. The living-room PC comes in 512GB and 2TB models, priced at $1049 / £879 and $1349 / £1149. Initial availability was handled through a lottery system, and buyers now have to join a waiting list, according to GamesIndustry.biz.

The Steam Machine is Valve’s latest attempt to push Steam into the TV space, this time following the success of Steam Deck rather than the earlier Steam Machines from the 2010s. But at more than $1,000, it’s landing closer to a compact gaming PC than a console, and Valve has acknowledged the hardware costs are higher than it wanted.