Steam Deck OLED stock is drying up, Valve confirms — and the RAM crisis has me worried for the Steam Machine

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The RAM crisis claims another victim

Steam Deck OLED
(Image credit: Future)

The ongoing RAM crisis has claimed another victim, as Valve has officially confirmed Steam Deck OLED stock issues are happening due to “memory and storage shortages.”

It follows a couple of weeks of interrupted stocking and theories being passed around as to why — all leading to this. And I have to say, after seeing the Steam Machine get delayed, this makes me even more nervous about the launch and price of Valve’s future home system.

Confirming what we’ve known for a while

Steam Deck OLED

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

This announcement confirms what a lot of us have feared for a while now. A lot of users were noting Steam Decks being listed as out of stock over the past couple of weeks.

"Steam Deck OLED may be out-of-stock intermittently in some regions due to memory and storage shortages,” the note reads on the Steam Deck product page.

We’re starting to see more of this as AI companies continue to consume the vast majority of RAM and SSDs for their data center requirements — continuing to drive up the prices of computing gear and causing stock issues.

A big “yikes” for the Steam Machine

Vale Steam Machine

(Image credit: Valve)

But one bigger question I have is simple: what does that mean for the Steam Machine? We already know it’s been delayed due to the crisis — pushed back to the more broad expectation of “the first half of the year,” rather than “early 2026.”

Valve has already said it will “revisit” the cost of it, but the RAM crisis already hitting the Steam Deck OLED raises much more concern.

If it’s already hitting Valve hard like this, what will that mean for the amount of Steam Machine stock available at launch? How will the company balance the demands of all its hardware? What will the price be in the end? Will we ever see Half-Life 3!?!?!

Taking the European retailer leak into context, I’m still sticking by the prediction (that hurts me a lot) of a $950 launch price.

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Jason England
Jason England
Managing Editor — Computing

Jason brings a decade of tech and gaming journalism experience to his role as a Managing Editor of Computing at Tom's Guide. He has previously written for Laptop Mag, Tom's Hardware, Kotaku, Stuff and BBC Science Focus. In his spare time, you'll find Jason looking for good dogs to pet or thinking about eating pizza if he isn't already.

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