As the AI boom gobbles up graphics cards, SSDs, memory sticks and more, building a gaming PC is currently eye-wateringly expensive (and it's never exactly been cheap). If, like me, you've been holding out in the hope that those prices will drop to more sensible levels soon, I'm sorry to say that's looking unlikely.
Earlier this month, research showed that memory prices are predicted to rise sharply between now and 2027, with no reductions expected until 2028. Now, Valve has shared its own view of the hardware market, and it's equally glum. Speaking to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier about the company's long road to the Steam Machine, Valve engineer Yazan Aldehayyat said the company only sees prices going up in the short to medium term:
"Honestly, it's still getting worse," Aldehayyat explained. "Just in case people are not aware. What people are seeing on retail shelves right now, from our observations, is lagging what we're seeing from a bulk supply by at least three to six months."
Oof. Valve also provided some insight into how the memory crises affected the Steam Machine's launch. Unsurprisingly, initial supply of the Steam Machine was impacted by memory availability. "We're basically building everything we can," fellow engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais explained. "We're limited by memory capacity, for sure."
Valve didn't go into detail about how many Steam Machines have been produced or sold up to this point. But according to Bloomberg, Valve does not view the success of the device in terms of raw sales figures. Rather, it's about providing players with a viable option for open-source PC gaming in their living rooms.
"We suspect that the Steam Machine is a really good way to solve a very real problem that people have," Aldehayyat said. "If that's borne out to be true, from our opinion, it's a success."
In addition, Griffais stated that the memory crisis hasn't altered Valve's plans for the future of the device. "Users are getting their machines," he said. "For a lot of the experience, the work starts. We'll be doing that for years to come."
The memory crisis wasn't the only subject Valve addressed during the chat. The company also discussed why it opted against launching an exclusive game for the Steam Machine. I had vaguely hoped that the launch of new Steam hardware might coincide with the reveal of a certain Half-Life sequel, but Valve said that it's much more interested in "having the whole PC catalog" as its "'launch exclusive'".
