Valve’s Steam Machine is now late and dearer. Thanks, AI

I had a sense this was coming. Whereas Valve has by no means confirmed the value of its hotly anticipated Steam Machine revival, the specs of the tiny, console-style PC indicated one thing cheaper than a full gaming desktop—and its precise worth might be essential to its success. However a bit of information hidden in a brand new FAQ web page signifies that even Valve is sweating in regards to the worth as a lot as the remainder of us are.

“Once we introduced these merchandise in November, we deliberate on having the ability to share particular pricing and launch dates by now,” says the FAQ. “However the reminiscence and storage shortages you’ve seemingly heard about throughout the {industry} have quickly elevated since then.” (You may say that once more!) Because of the explosion of “AI” knowledge facilities gobbling up reminiscence manufacturing capability, RAM specifically is getting insanely costly. It has doubled, tripled, and even quadrupled in worth for the form of speedy DDR5 DIMMs that PC builders crave. (Shout out to Aftermath’s good title on this subject: “The Steam Machine Has Been Delayed As a result of Silly Little Infants Can’t Cease Utilizing AI To Write Their Emails.”)

The worth affect isn’t fairly so dire for completed electronics as a result of economies of scale, however a 20 % bump within the worth of PCs is the overall estimate making the rounds. Valve not too long ago stopped manufacturing of the most affordable Steam Deck handheld, and whereas we will’t pin that solely on the RAM disaster, it appears virtually inevitable that shrinking margins and vanishing provides of low-cost reminiscence had been elements within the choice.

Valve continues within the FAQ: “Our objective of transport all three merchandise within the first half of the yr has not modified. However we have now work to do to land on concrete pricing and launch dates that we will confidently announce, being aware of how shortly the circumstances round each of these issues can change.”

The corporate says it’ll work laborious to get info to us sooner. However the RAM crunch isn’t anticipated to get any higher this calendar yr, probably extending for a number of years. Both the Steam Machine goes to value much more than the preliminary (and fully unofficial) estimates of $800 to $1,000… or Valve might want to chew the bullet and subsidize among the expense, in the identical loss-leader strategy that sport console {hardware} is usually offered. With a giant push to increase Steam’s energy within the PC gaming house and take a chew out of the console market, it may be price dipping into Valve’s seemingly infinite coffers.

The FAQ wasn’t all gloom and doom. We did be taught that the Steam Machine is focusing on 4K/60FPS graphics, albeit with the assistance of AMD’s FSR upscaling and body technology tech. Some particularly intense video games might want to reduce all the way down to 1080p and decrease body charges, which isn’t stunning given an 8GB GPU. The inner SSD and RAM DIMMs might be user-accessible and upgradeable. And the Steam Body VR headset ought to have the ability to match most glasses inside, with a attainable possibility for prescription lens inserts (one thing already out there for competing headsets just like the Meta Quest and Valve’s personal Index).