Last month, the Steam Deck LCD version was completely out of stock and no longer for sale. Valve has no restock plans as this version has officially been discontinued. Whether it's due to a discontinuation of production or a memory shortage, it looks like all versions of the Steam Deck in the US are sold out.
According to GamesRadar, the 512GB OLED version and 1TB OLED version of the Steam Deck are currently sold out in US stores. In fact, Japanese stores are also out of stock, but UK stores seem to have all versions in stock. It's unclear why the inventory was interrupted, but Japanese stores have said they will restock in late February.
Considering that AI data centers have driven memory prices soaring, memory shortages may be one of the reasons. However, with Japanese stores mentioning restocking in late February, this may just be a temporary capacity gap. However, given the impact this memory shortage has had on consoles and games, it's not surprising that the Steam Deck is also affected.
While it's unclear whether this is the real reason for the Steam Deck being out of stock, Valve has confirmed that the price increase of memory and other key components does create some difficulties in the launch of the Steam console. Due to the current situation, the company cannot confirm the price or release date of the console at this time.
Industry analyst Mat Piscatela calculated that the upper limit of the Steam Machine's selling price may be as high as $1,000. He also added that Valve could also opt for a $700 to $800 price tag if they were willing to bear some of the costs.