The price of a Steam Machine could increase in the coming months, as Valve highlights a sizeable lag between retail and supply costs. That said, despite this PC already proving more expensive than anyone anticipated, the company also claims the system is proving a success.
Speaking to news outlet Bloomberg about component pricing, Valve hardware engineer Yazan Aldehayyat gave a damning response about the state of the RAM market. “Honestly, it’s getting worse,” said Aldehayyat, adding that company observations point to retail pricing lagging behind supply by “at least three to six months.”
Fellow Valve engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais explicitly states that the memory crisis in particular is limiting production capacity, with the company “basically building everything we can get our hands on.” Such market conditions are what inevitably led the firm to ship the Steam Machine with single-channel RAM.
This doesn’t bode well for Steam Machine pricing, with the system already shooting well-north of Valve’s target. While neither engineer suggested the company is currently mulling over cost increases, you need only look at the Steam Deck’s 46% price hike to connect the dots.
Of course, this problem isn’t unique to Valve’s hardware. The entire consumer market is feeling the pain of this shortage, with current-generation consoles enduring price increases and rumours of $1,000 MSRPs for the PlayStation 6 now seeming entirely plausible.
Despite these difficulties, the Steam Machine is apparently proving a success for Valve. The company claims to have sold every system it’s produced thus far, but isn’t disclosing exact sales or production figures. It’s also unclear how much demand currently outstrips supply, or vice versa.
Check out our Steam Machine review for an in-depth analysis of Valve’s living room gaming box.
