Steam Deck OLED stock hit by RAM and SSD shortages in worrying sign for Steam Machine release

Steam Deck OLED stock is the latest victim of the AI boom-related explosion in RAM and SSD prices, it seems. Valve has just added a notice to its Steam Deck store page explaining that "Steam Deck OLED may be out-of-stock intermittently in some regions due to memory and storage shortages."

Steam Deck supply has often been hit with outages, particularly during the early days of the launch of both the Steam Deck LCD and Steam Deck OLED, thanks to Valve's gaming handheld simply being so popular that it regularly sold out. However, several years into its existence, stock of the Steam Deck OLED has generally been fairly consistent, up until now.

The problem for Valve is the same one that's affecting graphics card prices, SSD prices, and several other sectors of the tech space at the moment, which is that AI data centers have bought up so much stock of GPUs, RAM, and storage that supply simply can't keep up. This has led to shortages of key components and to prices rising significantly. Worst affected is RAM, with DDR5 having quadrupled in price in just three months, but significant price increases are kicking in elsewhere, too.

Valve has issued the stock statement worldwide on its Steam Deck store pages, despite stock still being available in some regions. For instance, while stock of all Steam Decks is sold out in the US, the UK has stock of all variants while Germany has stock only of the 1TB Steam Deck OLED.

Valve only specifies that the Steam Deck OLED is affected by these issues, pointing out that the 256GB Steam Deck LCD "is no longer in production, and once sold out will no longer be available."

This is all bad enough news for those still thinking of grabbing a Steam Deck OLED in the coming weeks and months, but it's potentially even worse for those waiting to grab a Steam Machine. Within weeks of the Steam Machine announcement, the true extent of RAM prices became clear, leading many to speculate that it could make it difficult for Valve to release the Steam Machine soon and at a low price.

Valve hasn't yet made an official statement regarding the Steam Machine price or launch date. AMD has suggested the initially stated "early 2026" Steam Machine release date is still on track, but Valve has since broadened the Steam Machine launch window to "the first half of the year," hinting at a summer rather than spring launch.

For now, we're just glad to see Valve isn't being tempted to increase the price of existing Steam Deck models. So while you may struggle to find stock on any given day, at least you know you won't be paying quadruple the price for one when it does become available.