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Valve's Steam Deck OLED, our current pick for the best handheld gaming PC, is suddenly out of stock on Steam in the US and from partner Komodo in Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, and Taiwan.
The stock issue began late last night, according to deal hunter Wario64. While the company stopped production of the LCD Steam Deck in December, there has been no suggestion that the OLED model was on the way out.
On Reddit, some users in Europe are stating that they still see stock. On the gaming forum ResetEra, some users in Japan say they see a note on Komodo that stock will return in February. The US store has no such note, though you can still add the device to your Steam Wishlist.
Valve has not responded to requests for comment as of publication.
(Image credit: Valve)
Speculation is intense, as Valve has had to delay the Steam Machine and Steam Frame and is reconsidering its pricing strategy due to component shortages. It's unclear where Steam Deck manufacturing falls in the company's plans — if at all.
Unlike some PC manufacturers, such as HP and Dell, Valve's scale isn't that of a global hardware giant. While some are wondering if there's a Steam Deck 2 imminent (Valve hasn't suggested it), others are talking online about the cost of making a Steam Deck as the price of memory and storage skyrocket. It's unlikely that Valve has the same backlog of components as do its competitors that specialize in consumer hardware, which could make producing the Steam Deck very expensive.
Valve likely already sells the Steam Deck at a loss. Owners primarily buy a Steam Deck to purchase games through the Steam storefront, and Valve collects a 30% cut of said game sales.
Even without the entry-level pricing of the LCD model, the $549 512GB OLED and $649 1TB options are still relatively affordable compared to competition, such as the $999.99 Asus ROG Xbox Ally X or the $1,349.99 Lenovo Legion Go 2. (The Asus ROG Xbox Ally is $599.99, but it was largely panned at release.)
This might just be a blip, in which case it may be quickly forgotten. But if it continues, it could be another sign of what we already know will be an incredibly difficult year for gaming and consumer electronics in general.
Definitely no Steam Deck 2. Machine/Frame took care of their hardware quota for the next 2 years, at least.
The longer the wait for the Steam Deck 2, the more interesting it gets for me, if it means it ends up with some neat SoC. Zen 6/7/8 are possible, and even ARM is on the table.
Given Valve's hardware strategy to date I don't think a Steam Deck 2 is coming before late 2028. Unless the other GPU manufacturers really change their Linux driver stance I don't see Valve stepping away from AMD. There's also zero indication that Valve is going to do custom hardware which means they're beholden to AMD's releases. Since there's no sign of regular APUs moving beyond RDNA 3.5 that means a hardware configuration Valve would even consider using won't appear until some time in 2027.
This would be moderately worrying to me, but the memory apocalypse is going to help out a lot here. Even if Intel can sell their proported G3 lower SKUs at a good price the DRAM/SSD costs will ensure no low priced handhelds this year at minimum.
Of course on the other hand if PTL's performance holds up at the 15W range in handheld that would mark the first time we've seen a performance increase good enough to upgrade to from a first Gen device (Ally, Claw or Steam Deck) for most people. This could very well drive sales of these devices especially later in the year if holiday discounts are a thing.
I echo the sentiments that there is no way there is an imminent launch of Steam Deck 2.
Valve has been pretty clear they aren't even considering it until there is a substantial hardware improvement.
Panther Lake offers that improvement, but it's unlikely to be cheap enough for Valve's pricing target.
Valve also has no incentive to release a new handheld when Asus/Xbox/Lenovo/MSI/etc. All offer something that works with Steam library.
I would guess they soft discontinued the product until DRAM and SSD pricing improves.
Hopefully this is not the end of the road for the Steam Deck, but if it is.
The Deck 1 did its job.
At this point wiping other handhelds and putting SteamOS on them increases performance and otherwise makes them into more or less Steam Decks. The Legions and Claws and Allys etc etc etc.
