The Steam Deck handheld gaming console has always been touted as a stable, affordable gateway into PC gaming. Recently, however, consumers discovered that their favorite gaming device quietly went out of stock without any fanfare from Valve.
Meanwhile, the company has been working on the upcoming Steam Machine. It is a hybrid PC-console that was planned for an early 2026 release, but with no price point in sight.
Given the Steam Deck's disappearance from online shops, people wondered whether the Steam Machine was in trouble. Either the machine launched late, arrived expensive, or showed up in tiny quantities.
Steam Deck stock vanished from online shops
Valve confirmed the issue in plain language on the store page for the Steam Deck.
"Steam Deck OLED may be out-of-stock intermittently in some regions due to memory and storage shortages," the company wrote on the store's webpage.
The LCD 256GB version was already discontinued, but even the 512GB and 1TB models were out of stock in the U.S. and Germany, for example. One account on X noted that there were still Steam Decks available in the U.K.
The major issue most consumers noted was that the drive to shift to AI data center support has led to RAM shortages for the casual gamer or techie.
Rising component costs added new risk; In December, the situation worsened when Micron announced it would retire its Crucial consumer products. This caused RAM prices to rise rapidly week by week, with some kits tripling or more in price.
Gamers say AI demand is driving up hardware costs
Social media captured the mood, as @ohwowcrazy tweeted, "The same technology making everybody unemployed is disrupting the number one activity of unemployed people."
Meanwhile, @geoffkeighley wrote, "All Steam Decks are currently out of stock in the US," before quoting Valve’s explanation.
Others sounded stunned. @pcguidedotcom noted, "Steam Deck stock is nowhere to be found in most of the world, apart from a couple of lucky regions."
@arseyHat_ wrote simply, "Go to buy a steam deck. All sold out."
Some reactions leaned sarcastic, such as @Michael_Urwin, who joked, "My 1TB OLED is basically a brick of gold rn."
@Defeatr292 asked, "Out of stock across the US? That’s either insane demand… or brutal supply chain pressure. Probably both."
On a TikTok post about the shortage, one person commented, "In 10 years we're legit going to be making Frankenstein monster PCS just to play stardew valley."
"Because people can’t stop using ai slop," another noted. "Electronics have gotten more expensive because of it. And it’s polluting our water supply."
Valve did not respond immediately to the Daily Dot’s request for comment via email.
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