I finally understand why Valve abandoned the Steam Machine — the Steam Deck just proved it
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Valve's sudden Steam Deck OLED price hike — from $549 to $789 for the 512GB model — signals more than a temporary retail adjustment. The root cause is an AI-driven component shortage that has sent RAM and storage prices soaring, making it impossible for Valve to subsidize aging mobile hardware. This pricing reality makes the unreleased Steam Machine console even more structurally unviable: if a four-year-old mobile APU platform now costs nearly $1,000, a desktop-class Steam Machine with dedicated graphics would realistically launch above $1,200, pricing it out of the console market it was designed to capture. Combined with repeated release delays and a fragmented hardware portfolio, the dream of a cheap Linux-powered living room console appears dead before it launches.
