(Credit: Joseph Maldonado/PCMag)
Valve has confirmed what we all suspected: The limited stock of the Steam Deck OLED in the US is due to the RAM crunch.
"Steam Deck OLED may be out-of-stock intermittently in some regions due to memory and storage shortages," Valve writes on the Steam Deck store page in the US, where all models are listed as Out of Stock at the time of writing.
(Credit: Jon Martidale/Valve)That's not the case in all territories, though. In the UK, I can confirm all three versions of the Steam Deck are in stock. Even the 256GB LCD model, which is scheduled to be delisted once existing stock is sold.
In the US, however, Steam Deck prices have risen dramatically on third-party seller sites. Newegg has some models listed at over $1,000 each, which might be a bit of a stretch, given that they're supposed to retail for $549 (512GB) or $649 (1TB).
Valve is not the only company being affected by memory shortages, but while others have raised prices or even sold devices without RAM, Valve appears to have only limited its buying options—for now. It also has its hands full; earlier this month, it delayed the launch of the Steam Frame and Steam Machine thanks to memory-related challenges. Valve hasn't announced pricing for the Steam Machine yet; will RAM troubles push it north of $1,000?