Valve says RAM shortages helped push Steam Machine prices higher
Valve engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais said memory suppliers are offering monthly prices and limited quantities with little room to bargain.
By Maya Lindqvist · Senior Technology Correspondent
3 min read
Valve’s new Steam Machine is arriving with prices shaped in part by a tight memory market, according to The Verge. A Valve engineer told Gamers Nexus that RAM buying in 2026 has become a monthly, take-it-or-leave-it process with little room for normal contracting.
The Verge reported that the Steam Machine will cost $1,049 for the 512GB model and $1,349 for the 2TB model. Those prices do not include bundled controllers, which The Verge said add to the total cost.
According to The Verge, Valve is not subsidizing the hardware. The publication also reported that Valve had already said the component crunch led the company to rethink earlier pricing plans for the Steam Machine.
Valve describes limited leverage with suppliers
In an interview with the YouTube channel Gamers Nexus, Valve engineers discussed the difficulty of sourcing RAM while memory and other parts remain scarce, The Verge reported. The Verge named Samsung, Micron and SK Hynix as examples of the small group of major suppliers in that market.
Gamers Nexus asked Valve whether it had been able to secure memory contracts directly with suppliers or had to work through a more complicated process. Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais said there were no contracts in place.
“Those guys… they give us a price every month or something and they say, ‘you can buy that many,’ and it’s yes or no,” Griffais told Gamers Nexus, according to The Verge. “And if we say no, then they never talk to us again.”
The comment points to the pressure facing hardware makers that need memory at a time when supply is tight. The Verge described the supplier offers as fixed-price monthly opportunities for limited amounts of RAM, rather than negotiated long-term arrangements.
Shortage is affecting other hardware makers
The Verge reported that Valve is not alone in dealing with higher memory costs. The publication cited pricing changes tied to the memory shortage at other hardware makers, including Lenovo and Microsoft.
The Verge also reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook has warned of coming price increases for iPhones, Macs and other Apple devices because of RAM costs. The publication said the shortage is not expected to improve soon.
The memory supply problem is also affecting how Valve will configure the Steam Machine, according to The Verge. The company will ship systems with either a single 16GB RAM stick or two 8GB sticks, depending on available supply.
For buyers, the result is a Steam Machine launch with a higher starting price than many may have expected and no controller included in the base price. For Valve, the Gamers Nexus interview shows how little room the company says it has when buying one of the core parts needed to build the device.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.