Valve halts Steam Deck sales as AI-fueled memory shortage grips gaming hardware market

AI-fueled chip shortage forces Valve to halt Steam Deck sales

Valve has confirmed the Steam Deck is out of stock indefinitely due to the AI-fueled memory shortage affecting the entire tech industry. The company updated its store page to warn that shortages will continue "from time to time for the foreseeable future." "Steam Deck OLED may be out-of-stock intermittently in some regions due to memory and storage shortages," Valve stated. The 256GB LCD model has been discontinued entirely. No clear timeline exists for stock recovery or potential price changes. The shortage represents a broader crisis where AI data center investments have consumed memory supply, driving up costs across consumer electronics. Sony is reportedly delaying the PS6 until 2029, and Nintendo may raise Switch 2 prices as component costs spiral. Valve's upcoming compact gaming PC has also been delayed as the company struggles to source affordable components. The AI industry's massive compute demands continue to reshape hardware availability across gaming, consumer electronics, and beyond.

Valve blames current Steam Deck shortages on global memory crisis

TL;DR: Valve's Steam Deck is experiencing intermittent out-of-stock issues globally due to a memory and storage shortage driven by increased demand from AI data centers. The 256GB LCD model is discontinued, while OLED models face limited availability and potential price increases, with supply expected to fluctuate through 2026. Last week, several Steam users began to notice that Valve's Steam Deck was 'out of stock' in several regions. Covering all three models, the Steam Deck 256GB LCD, the Steam Deck 512GB OLED, and the Steam Deck 1TB OLED, many began to wonder if the shortages were due to the current memory and storage crisis causing chaos in the consumer market. The unprecedented increase in memory pricing and the general unavailability of stock, due to most memory and storage being diverted to AI data centers, have already delayed Valve's planned early 2026 launch of the Steam Machine. Although Valve recently committed to releasing the Steam Machine in the first half of 2026, the current expectation is that it will likely arrive in limited quantities and at an inflated, higher-than-originally-planned price point. So, yeah, seeing the Steam Deck, Valve's popular PC gaming handheld, suddenly go 'out of stock,' led to some genuine concern. Well, thanks to an update on the official Steam Deck store page, it looks like those concerns were valid, as the "memory and storage shortages" have caused the Steam Deck to become unavailable in several regions. As of writing, both Steam Deck OLED models are available for purchase directly from Valve in Australia and the UK, with the note on the store page confirming that the global availability of Steam Deck handhelds will be 'out-of-stock' intermittently. "Steam Deck OLED may be out of stock intermittently in some regions due to memory and storage shortages. Steam Deck LCD 256GB is no longer in production, and once sold out, will no longer be available," the note reads, confirming that the reason for the lack of Steam Deck handhelds in the U.S. is due to the current memory crisis caused by the AI boom. The note confirming that the shortages are temporary is good news, but with the "may be out of stock intermittently" phrasing, we can probably expect the Steam Deck 512GB OLED and 1TB OLED models to be in and out of stock throughout 2026.

The Steam Deck Is Out Of Stock And Valve Says Get Used To It

People started noticing last week that the Steam Deck was becoming impossible to buy. Valve declined to comment on the situation at the time but has now updated the PC gaming handheld's store page to note that, yes, the Steam Deck is currently out of stock and will remain that way from time to time for the foreseeable future due to the AI-fueled memory crisis currently threatening every piece of the economy that relies on computers to run. "Note: Steam Deck OLED may be out-of-stock intermittently in some regions due to memory and storage shortages," reads the new disclaimer. "Steam Deck LCD 256GB is no longer in production, and once sold out will no longer be available." Valve still hasn't offered any clearer sense of when the $550 Steam Deck OLED will be back in stock or if the price will be going up. The company put the original $400 Steam Deck LCD model on sale last fall until inventory sold out at which point it was discontinued. Arguably the best bang-for-your-buck PC gaming handheld is now just completely unavailable in some regions just two years after the latest version of it launched. It's the latest victim of the AI arms race in which "hyperscale" companies are investing hundreds of billions in building out data centers in order to supply compute for running models like ChatGPT and Claude Code to churn out everything from meme slop to finished app projects. No one quite knows where it's all headed outside of promises that one lucky AI company will either create God or pop a 2008-style financial bubble in the process. In the meantime, markets that rely on affordable memory, like consumer electronics generally and gaming in particular, are getting completely hammered. Sony is reportedly considering delaying the PS6 until 2029, the Nintendo is probably going to have to raise the price of the Switch 2 just a year after it launched, and developers behind new blockbusters are already scrambling to optimize their games for PC so players won't need to spend an extra $200 upgrading to 32GB of RAM in order to play them when they come out. And of course all of Valve's own hardware is currently in purgatory. With a new Steam Deck still a long ways off, the Half-Life company's focus for 2026 was a new compact gaming PC aimed squarely at living room gamers. Valve was supposed to reveal the price and release date by now but had to push the pre-orders back as it figures out how to source a rapidly dwindling supply of affordable PC components. I'm assured it's all for a good cause.