t’s certainly been a journey for Valve. A week prior to the Steam Frame’s launch, we spoke with two engineers at Valve about the project: Joy Lyons, hardware engineer, and Jeremy Selan, software engineer. The memory crisis and the price were a big part of that conversation. From that chat, we can confirm that Valve had aimed for a lower price point than the one it’s launching the Frame for today.
Here’s Lyons on the memory crisis:
“We set out to design this hardware with one particular price in mind, but we’ve made choices to make sure that we’re making a product that is choiceful, that people can purchase, they can upgrade with different features later. But we wanted to make sure we had a base product with really great performance. Then that price target shifted due to the ongoing RAM crisis around the world.”
Lyons also said that forecasting for the cost of certain components used in the Steam Frame is an ongoing challenge.
Not exactly boding well of the Steam Deck 2.
I know that they had to release it, after all the R&D, but the way they did is just bad. Having to pay for the charger separately. Having to pay the comfort pack separately. Receiving only 1 game, which is a 6 year old game that cost £13, currently. Having no color pass-through, without paying extra. Why would anybody go out and buy this, if they haven’t bought already a VR headset. Yes privacy is nice, but there are others that also do it and cheaper (especially second hand). Especially knowing this: https://www.forbes.com/sites/katiadamborsky/2026/05/05/inside-leviathan-why-gabe-newells-new-yacht-is-a-total-game-changer/