If you’ve tried to secure a Steam Deck over the last few weeks or so, odds are you’ve been met with a giant “Out of Stock” disclaimer on Valve’s own website, particularly in the United States. As many expected, the reason behind the stock shortage has everything to do with the ongoing shortage of RAM and memory that consumers and companies alike are currently weathering.
Over on the Steam Store, the only place consumers can purchase a brand-new Steam Deck, a new disclaimer issued by Valve outlines the situation the company currently finds itself in.
Note: 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.
Currently, all three Steam Deck options are greyed out on the storefront. Granted, the LCD option is gone for good, and the site has yet to be updated to account for its discontinuation.
Things aren’t much better on the “Refurbished” side, where every model is currently unavailable for purchase. For anyone who ultimately wants a console, short of waiting for a restock, whenever that will be, your best bet is the second-hand market.
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The lack of availability for Valve’s flagship handheld device comes on the heels of the company being unable to commit to a pricepoint for its upcoming Steam Machine console variant.
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By now, Valve admits it would’ve like to have solidified pricing and a release date. However, the current market situation has forced the company to “revisit” things.
“When we announced these products in November, we planned on being able to share specific pricing and launch dates by now,” a statement from then read. “The limited availability and growing prices of these critical components [memory and storage] mean we must revisit our exact shipping schedule and pricing (especially around Steam Machine and Steam Frame).”
That said, Valve is far from the only corporation that is revisiting strategy.
Earlier on Monday, it was reported that Sony could push its launch of the PlayStation 6 all the way until 2029. The report implies that, at one point, things were slated for next year, but clearly things have had to shift.
Elsewhere, Nintendo, which previously affirmed that its Switch 2 console wouldn’t undergo an immediate price hike, might have to actually have to institute one. That bit tracks with previous analysis that the Switch 2 would see a price increase not unlike its competition at some point in 2026.
The end result is a situation in which ordinary consumers are unable to purchase the things they want, and even if those things do return to stock, there’s no telling what the price will be in order to offset the shortages. The Steam Deck just happens to be the latest victim.
- Brand
-
Steam (Valve)
- Original Release Date
-
February 25, 2022
- Original MSRP (USD)
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$399–$649
- Operating System
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SteamOS 3 (Arch-based)
- Processor
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Zen 2 4c/8t, 2.4-3.5GHz (up to 448 GFlops FP32)
- Resolution
-
1200 x 800
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