TECH NEWS – According to Gabe Newell and his team, the already dire situation is set to worsen, which will affect prices.
The AI boom has driven up demand for graphics cards, SSDs, and memory modules, making building a gaming PC incredibly expensive (and it was never cheap to begin with). Earlier this month, a study showed that memory prices are expected to rise sharply until 2028, with no decline anticipated beforehand. Valve has also shared its take on the hardware market, and the outlook is just as bleak. In a conversation with Bloomberg editor Jason Schreier about the company’s long journey to the Steam Machine, Valve engineer Yazan Aldehayyat said that Valve expects only price increases in the short and medium term.
Valve also provided insight into how the memory crisis affected the launch of the Steam Machine. Unsurprisingly, memory availability also affected the device’s initial lineup. Valve did not specify how many Steam Machines have been manufactured or sold to date. However, according to Bloomberg, Valve does not measure the device’s success based solely on sales figures. Rather, the goal is to provide gamers with a viable option for playing open-source PC games in their living rooms. Pierre-Loup Griffais, another Valve engineer, said the memory shortage has not changed the company’s future plans for the device.
"Honestly, it’s still getting worse. I mention this just in case people are not aware. From our observations, what people are seeing on retail shelves right now is lagging behind what we’re seeing from a bulk supply by at least three to six months. We suspect that the Steam Machine is a good solution to a real problem people have. If that turns out to be true, we think it will be a success," Aldehayyat explained. "We’re basically building everything we can. We’re limited by memory capacity, for sure. Users are getting their machines. The work starts for a lot of the experience. We’ll be doing that for years to come," Griffais added.
The memory crisis wasn’t the only topic Valve discussed during the interview. The company also discussed why it decided not to release any exclusive games for the Steam Machine. Valve said that they are much more interested in making the entire PC catalog available as exclusive content at launch.
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