Highlights
- AI data center demand is causing severe Steam Deck OLED stock outages and RAM/SSD scarcity.
- Global DRAM and NAND costs have skyrocketed, with suppliers already sold out through 2026.
- Extreme manufacturing costs are pushing back releases for the Steam Machine, PS6, and Switch 2.
If you have been aggressively refreshing the Steam store hoping to grab a Steam Deck OLED, you finally have an official explanation for the dreaded "Out of Stock" warning. Valve has officially confirmed that the ongoing scarcity of its popular handheld PC in the United States is a direct result of a global memory and storage crisis. Driven largely by the explosive growth of artificial intelligence data centers consuming the world's supply of RAM and solid-state drives, this shortage has severely impacted the entire consumer electronics market.
Last week, all three Steam Deck models, the 256GB LCD, the 512GB OLED, and the 1TB OLED, completely sold out on the official United States Steam store, prompting a wave of speculation. Valve quickly broke its silence by updating the Steam Deck store page with a clear warning: "Steam Deck OLED may be out-of-stock intermittently in some regions due to memory and storage shortages."
Fortunately for international buyers, at the time of writing, all Steam Deck OLED models remain available in the UK and Australia. However, for budget-conscious gamers, Valve also announced the definitive end of the line for its 256GB LCD option; production halted last December, meaning it will disappear forever once current regional stocks vanish, as reported by PC Gamer.
The data behind this supply chain nightmare paints a bleak picture for anyone looking to buy new gaming electronics. Driven by tech giants fiercely competing for components to build high-bandwidth AI infrastructure, the cost of manufacturing hardware has skyrocketed. Sourceability said in its report that memory suppliers have implemented immediate price hikes of 20 to 30% on DRAM, while global DRAM prices as a whole have surged by an incredible 172% over the past year.
Steam Deck
How the Global Memory Crisis Impacts the Gaming Industry
The SSD market is faring no better. SSD maker Transcend recently reported that costs had risen by 50 to 100% in just a single week. To make matters worse, major manufacturers like Western Digital have reportedly already sold out their entire storage capacity for 2026 just seven weeks into the year. Valve simply cannot secure the necessary components to manufacture the Steam Deck at a sustainable volume without taking massive financial losses.
This memory and storage apocalypse extends far beyond the Steam Deck, threatening to shutter many smaller electronics manufacturers and forcing industry giants to heavily pivot. Valve was recently forced to delay its console-like PC hybrid, the Steam Machine, from an early 2026 launch to sometime in the first half of the year.
The company noted that the limited availability and growing prices of these critical components mean they must revisit their exact shipping schedules and pricing, which also impacts the upcoming Steam Frame VR headset and the new Steam Controller. The fallout is hitting the console kings, too. Bloomberg reports suggest these extreme component costs have forced Sony to consider pushing the PlayStation 6 release to 2028 or 2029, while Nintendo is facing immense pressure to hike the price of the Nintendo Switch 2.
Unsurprisingly, the gaming community has been incredibly vocal about this hardware drought. Online buzz exploded in r/SteamDeck (6,200+ upvotes, 588 comments), where users lamented years-long supply chain pain from skyrocketing RAM/SSD costs. There is a deep, genuine concern that this shortage could become the "new normal," inflating costs for everyone from portable gamers to high-end PC builders.
The crisis has everything to do with the AI industry's greedy demand for memory. So, the next time you're watching an AI-generated reel of a giant Norwegian Forest Cat eating live cartoon tuna while razing Manhattan, you'll know exactly who to blame for the lack of hardware.
