Scratch that, the Steam Machine is delayed after all – and Valve confirm RAM shortages will affect pricing

"We person enactment to do," says caller blog post

Despite AMD’s assurances to the contrary, Valve person announced that they’ve pushed backmost merchandise plans for the caller Steam Machine, Steam Controller, and Steam Frame VR headset. Alas, my curse of publishing quality posts astir 0.0045 seconds earlier a large concern alteration continues to ruin my beingness – sometimes I privation I’d ne'er beaten the warlocks successful that Titanfall 2 pub match.

Instead of "early 2026," the archetypal merchandise window, Valve are present lone aiming to vessel the hardware trio "in the archetypal fractional of the year." No prizes for guessing the cause, either: the Steam blog station notes specifically that ongoing representation and SSD shortages, caused by the tech manufacture buying up components to physique infrastructure for AI products, person some scuppered the archetypal motorboat plans and delayed Valve’s determination connected however the Steam Machine and its brethren volition beryllium priced.

"When we announced these products successful November," the station reads, "we planned connected being capable to stock circumstantial pricing and motorboat dates by now. But the representation and retention shortages you've apt heard astir crossed the manufacture person rapidly accrued since then.The constricted availability and increasing prices of these captious components mean we indispensable revisit our nonstop shipping docket and pricing (especially astir Steam Machine and Steam Frame).

"Our extremity of shipping each 3 products successful the archetypal fractional of the twelvemonth has not changed. But we person enactment to bash to onshore connected factual pricing and motorboat dates that we tin confidently announce, being mindful of however rapidly the circumstances astir some of those things tin change. We volition support you updated arsenic overmuch arsenic we tin arsenic we finalize those plans arsenic soon arsenic possible."

If the Machine, Controller, and Frame do get successful the archetypal fractional of 2026, that yet wouldn’t beryllium an interminable hold beyond the primitively announced window. Higher-than-expected prices look similar a given, though, peculiarly for the Machine and the Frame. The Steam Controller mightiness astatine slightest dodge the stroke of the economics hammer, arsenic it contains neither a abdominous SSD nor a heap of RAM.

For now, each we tin bash is bitterly adhd "Hopes of a inexpensive surviving country PC" to the database of each the things that the AI uranium unreserved has destroyed, alongside wide constituent pricing, Crucial, and crippled developers’ opinions of AI.