Valve’s upcoming latest hardware releases remain in limbo as it really works on securing memory and storage inventory throughout the current shortage. It’s a water-is-wet moment as Valve updates on its hardware blog that it was caught off guard by the impact the present state of certain component supply would have on the discharge of its Steam Machine, Steam Controller, and Fame wireless VR headset. It’s no secret that if the tech has silicon in it, said product likely has some type of storage, and manufacturers of those components are prioritizing orders to datacenters and Enterprise clients, leaving consumer products in a newfound state of pricing chaos. Valve has largely remained silent on the pricing of its Steam Machine, specifically, causing many to take a position where it can land. The overall consensus is that the goal would must be within the $700-$800 range, or less, but which will now be unachievable.
“Once we announced these products in November, we planned on having the ability to share specific pricing and launch dates by now. However the memory and storage shortages you’ve likely heard about across the industry have rapidly increased since then. The limited availability and growing prices of those critical components mean we must revisit our exact shipping schedule and pricing (especially around Steam Machine and Steam Frame).”
– Valve
Current industry rumors suggest that memory and storage shortages could last so far as 2028, although many are hoping they stabilize much sooner. The immediate concern for Valve stays to obtain enough supply at manageable costs so it could actually sell enough units to get its products off the bottom and profitable before the inevitable price hikes. The opposite, in fact, is keeping to its planned release schedule.
“Our goal of shipping all three products in the primary half of the yr has not modified. But we now have work to do to land on concrete pricing and launch dates that we will confidently announce, being mindful of how quickly the circumstances around each of those things can change. We are going to keep you updated as much as we will as we finalize those plans as soon as possible.”
– Valve
Valve is way from the one hardware manufacturer to be stuck on this predicament. As mentioned, virtually any device that relies on a type of silicon to store information is affected, and this includes phones, laptops, tablets, desktops, consoles, televisions, various appliances, smart watches, and way more. The typical tech user is probably going unaware of the impact the present shortage is already having and could have because the months progress. It’s already been rumored that this crisis is playing a big role in Sony and Microsoft’s release strategy for his or her next console releases and will also affect upcoming phone launches from Apple and Samsung. Allow us to not forget that there are an important many rumors circulating on how the shortage is claimed to affect NVIDIA’s future GPU releases as well, and AMD has already commented on its efforts to maintain prices for its GPUs down.
Join the discussion in The FPS Review Forums…