Valve's Steam Machine Has Been Delayed, and the RAM Crisis Will Impact Pricing
3 40Valve has pushed back the launch of its Steam Machine, Steam Frame and Steam Controller hardware from its original Q1 2026 window to a vaguer "first half of the year" target, blaming the ongoing memory and storage shortage that has been squeezing the tech industry.
The company said in a post today that rising component prices and limited availability forced it to revisit both its shipping schedule and pricing plans. Valve had previously indicated the Steam Machine would be priced at the entry level of the PC space.
3 comments
Boooooo (Score: 5, Funny)
by liqu1d ( 4349325 ) on Thursday February 05, 2026 @12:10AM (#65969752)
Bad AI!
Re:Let's hope China saves us (Score: 5, Insightful)
by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Thursday February 05, 2026 @06:58AM (#65970024)
Rumor has it some Chinese chip manufacturers are developing DRAM chips, which should be cheaper.
Do they come with optional bit-flipping technology? But QA jokes asside China has had DRAM manufacturing capability. CXMT started production of DRAM in 2018. But it takes many years to get a new facility up and running for DRAM production. If there are any facilities coming online right now they have nothing to do with AI or the current shortage.
AI is economically disastrous (Score: 5, Insightful)
by Pinky's Brain ( 1158667 ) on Thursday February 05, 2026 @04:19AM (#65969914)
AI doesn't destroy jobs because of replacement, but simply because of malinvestment.
The amount of companies getting destroyed here for a bit of boom and bust in datacentre construction is ridiculous.