Valve’s Steam Machine price, as well as most memory or graphics processing units on the market, has been greatly affected by the AI gold rush. In a recent interview with Jason Schreier, Valve engineer Yazan Aldehayyat shared even grimmer prospects on the subject.
Research from early July predicted that the trend of rising memory and GPU prices will likely continue to worsen until at least 2027 and won’t stabilize until 2028. More recently, Aldehayyat told Schreier about the extent of the memory crisis and how it affects even a juggernaut like Valve. “Honestly, it’s still getting worse,” he said. “Just in case people are not aware. What people are seeing on retail shelves right now, from our observations, is lagging what we’re seeing from a bulk supply by at least three to six months.”
Though we don’t know how many Steam Machines Valve had set out to produce from the get-go (and the stock that was available immediately sold out even at the elevated price), and how many the company ended up making so far, it’s clear that the output has been hindered by the market situation.
It’s very clear that Valve believes in the new Steam Machine, and, pricing aside, it’s hard to deny that a hybrid product that makes PC gaming so much more accessible and, supposedly, affordable, has a place in the current gaming landscape.
Had the Steam Machine’s arrival not been marred by the severe supply strain, Valve may be on a glorious victory lap right now, especially when considering the terrible way both Microsoft and Sony have been mishandling their own games, workers, and even clients. Instead, the two established console manufacturers have at least two years to set their business practices straight. Who knows? Otherwise, they might be looking at an unbeatable gamer-favored “Gabecube” in the somewhat near future.
