The Steam Machine was supposed to be out pretty soon, along with the Steam Controller and Steam Frame, but Valve announced today that not only has all this hardware's release been delayed, but that it'll probably be more expensive whenever it comes out, too.
The announcement reads:
When we announced these products in November, we planned on being able to share specific pricing and launch dates by now. But the memory and storage shortages you've likely heard about across the industry have rapidly increased since then. The limited availability and growing prices of these critical components mean we must revisit our exact shipping schedule and pricing (especially around Steam Machine and Steam Frame).
Our goal of shipping all three products in the first half of the year has not changed. But we have work to do to land on concrete pricing and launch dates that we can confidently announce, being mindful of how quickly the circumstances around both of those things can change. We will keep you updated as much as we can as we finalize those plans as soon as possible.
Those "memory and storage shortages", if you haven't heard about them, are a result of AI data centre usage--or, not even usage, but planned usage--fucking with global production and supply chains so much that the cost of everything from SSDs to RAM has shot through the roof.
Here’s why RAM prices are skyrocketing and SSDs and GPUs could soon follow suit
The answer: AI of course.
Jacob Fox
This news has moved me from "maybe computer use should be regulated" to "Butlerian Jihad Now" on the radicalisation scale.
