Valve says RAM shortage will keep Steam Machine prices high

The ongoing global memory and RAM shortage is continuing to worsen, with engineers at Valve warning that consumers should expect persistently high prices and constrained supply for at least several more months, directly impacting the new Steam Machine console. The outlook, provided in recent interviews with Bloomberg, contradicts hopes that a price drop might be imminent and suggests costs for gaming hardware could continue to rise.

Valve engineer Yazan Aldehayyat stated bluntly that the situation is "still getting worse." He explained that current retail pricing lags behind bulk supply costs by an estimated three to six months, indicating the pressure on consumer prices has not yet peaked. Another Valve engineer, Pierre-Loup Griffais, confirmed that production of the Steam Machine is being strictly limited by memory availability, saying, "We're basically building everything we can. We're limited by memory capacity, for sure."

The Steam Machine launched on June 22 with a starting price of $1,049 for a 512GB model without a controller, a figure that initially sparked widespread discussion about affordability. Valve previously attributed the high price to the component crisis,...