The Steam Deck is out of inventory, on the worst doable time
Abstract created by Good Solutions AI
In abstract:
- PCWorld studies that each one Steam Deck fashions are presently out of inventory within the US and Canada, although availability continues within the UK and EU.
- This scarcity happens at a crucial time when rising AI trade demand has elevated reminiscence costs, affecting the Steam Deck’s 16GB LPDDR5 RAM prices.
- The timing is especially problematic as Valve must capitalize on present market situations to take care of its management in opposition to rivals like Asus and Lenovo.
Even after the most cost effective mannequin was retired, the Steam Deck handheld stays probably the most reasonably priced, versatile method to get your arms (ha) on PC gaming {hardware}. However not in the mean time. All three fashions of Steam Deck {hardware} at the moment are exhibiting as out of inventory on Valve’s US web page. Canada can be out of inventory, however fashions are nonetheless accessible within the UK and EU, in response to a fast VPN search.
This isn’t the primary time that the Steam Deck has been in brief provide. However following the retirement of the unique, $400 USD design, and after Valve admitted that it needed to delay pricing and availability bulletins for its upcoming Steam {hardware}, it’s a nasty look. The Steam Deck is unquestionably the chief by a large margin within the handheld gaming PC house, with its varied imitators solely garnering a fraction of its gross sales, even with the backing of big PC producers like Asus and Lenovo.
Proper now’s the time that Valve must double down on Steam as a gaming platform, to get individuals excited for the console-adjacent Steam Machine. It’s additionally when individuals coming into the PC gaming house want cheaper choices than over a thousand bucks for a nominally “mid-range” desktop. Microsoft is feeling the warmth as each avid gamers and common customers are fed up with Home windows 11’s AI antics and total bugs. When you’ll forgive the cliche, the iron is sizzling, it’s time to strike.
Sadly, it’s additionally the time for extremely costly reminiscence from the RAM crunch. The “AI” trade buildout is constraining reminiscence provide and elevating costs for tons of shopper electronics, particularly high-memory PCs. The Steam Deck’s 16GB of shared LPDDR5 RAM isn’t precisely huge, however even that appears to be so much to ask for as of late — there are rumors that laptop computer makers will slide again the “midrange” customary to simply 8GB, which is lower than I like to recommend for Home windows 11.
That being mentioned, I don’t assume this means a large-scale manufacturing problem for Valve, at the least not but. With availability nonetheless exhibiting in Europe (Valve solely sells {hardware} instantly within the US, Canada, UK, and EU), there’s no signal of a full worldwide scarcity. It might simply be that Valve has bought out a buildup of {hardware} from the vacations, and is a bit of gradual to get it again up in a historically lax interval of retail gross sales. Nonetheless, with all the opposite maddening woes of being a PC gamer in 2026, little gray buttons on the underside of the Steam Deck retailer web page usually are not a welcome sight.
