You can dive right back into Edward Kenway’s tryst with the Caribbean at launch and enjoy all of the new features it’s bringing to the table, including ray-tracing, dynamic weather, and a fresh new look for the world and its denizens. We’re going to make a beeline straight for Havana when we get our hands on the game, and see if playing on the Steam Deck is everything the studio is promising.

It’s quite heartening to see Ubisoft spare no effort to ensure that the nostalgia-heavy remake manages to cast its spell on us just as well as the original Black Flag, while still bringing new touches like the new Assassin’s Creed Shadows-inspired combat system that’s sure to test your skills. Of course, you probably already know that the thing we’re most stoked about is just hopping onto The Jackdaw’s deck and exploring the seas to our heart’s content.

Thankfully, we’ve got roughly a week left before we indulge ourselves in a game that’s a reminder of the Assassin’s Creed franchise’s best years on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.

Griffais had previously spoken about Valve being “hard at work” on a new Steam Deck, and back in April, said that everything that the company has worked on since – the Steam Machine and the new Steam Controller – are building up to the company’s future hardware plans. “And we expect Steam Deck 2 will be a lot of the same,” he said, “where a lot of what we’re doing here will be learnings that build up to it.”

Designer Lawrence Yang had noted back in 2024 that Valve was waiting for a “generational leap” in hardware before it starts working on a follow-up to the Steam Deck. “We’re not going to do a bump every year. There’s no reason to do that.”

As for the current state of hardware, Griffais has said that the wait for such a generational leap still continues. While there have been chips, like Intel’s Arc G3, they still have to strike the right balance between raw horsepower and efficiency for a handheld device.

“I think a lot of them are more low-end laptop chips or playing in that sort of form factor that are then repurposed for handhelds and maybe not leading to, I guess the trade-off that we would’ve chosen in terms of power and better life and that and all that,” he explained.

While R&D efforts might have hit a roadblock due to ongoing shortages in memory and storage components, Griffais has noted that Valve is continuing its work towards the next generation of its hardware. “We’ll definitely be talking about that in the coming years, but right now we’re focusing on [Steam] Machine.”

Interestingly, rumors from April have indicated that Valve has been targeting a 2028 launch window for its next-generation Steam Deck. However, according to known leaker KeplerL2, these plans might get delayed due to memory shortages. However, these delays might lead to even better hardware in the next-gen handheld since Valve isn’t using semi-custom chips unlike Sony’s PS6 and Microsoft’s Project Helix.

In the meantime, Valve has confirmed that the most basic version of the Steam Machine, with 512 GB of storage and no included Steam Controller, is priced at $1,049. The company said in a statement that it couldn’t subsidize the hardware costs of the Steam Machine due to its nature as an open Linux-based PC. Since the company couldn’t guarantee additional revenue through Steam purchases by potential buyers, it had to make sure that the system isn’t sold at a loss. The same openness was also described as one of the few things that Valve is “religious” about, since it enables anyone with a PC to come up with an idea and implement it in their own way.

NYU Stern professor Joost van Dreunen brought up the cost of RAM as the major reason for price hikes. Along with this, he noted geopolitical situations, such as the US tariffs, have played a role.

“The rising cost of RAM is the main culprit, but the inconsistency and volatility created by U.S. tariffs aren’t helping either,” said van Dreunen. “Downstream suppliers and manufacturers now sit on massive amounts of inventory they cannot sell or assemble because few consumers would be willing to pay for the markup. What was supposed to bring manufacturing jobs to the U.S. has instead priced consumers out of the market and pushed manufacturing jobs to lower-wage countries.”

Kantan Games CEO Dr Serkan Toto reiterated van Dreunen’s statement, saying that these various factors have added up to create a “persistent inflation worldwide”. Niko Partners director of research Daniel Ahmad similarly discussed fluctuations in various currencies around the world. However, he acknowledged that many of these issues are largely affecting Western markets, and that regions like MENA (Middle East and North Africa) and Asia are doing better.

“The Asia and MENA games market continues to demonstrate resilience and long-term growth potential amid ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, shifting trade policies, and broader economic volatility impacting industries worldwide,” he explained. “Asia and MENA countries will continue to outpace worldwide video game software and services growth through 2030 according to our forecast and global estimates.”

Discussing the future, all analysts expressed belief that prices will likely increase further, since geopolitical tensions remain high. Alinea Analytics’ head of market analysis, Rhys Elliot, referred to the current price hikes as “lagging indicators, not the peak.”

“Platform holders and manufacturers run on long-term supply contracts and inventory buffers that initially shielded retail pricing,” explained Elliot. “As those contracts expire, companies are renegotiating component costs at today’s inflated rate, and that pressure is industry-wide.” Despite this, he also believes the industry is still relatively healthy for now, since the “pipeline of new, spending users” hasn’t yet closed up. Omdia’s senior analyst James McWhirter, however, believes that we will see more price hikes for platforms like the Nintendo Switch 2 next year.

Circana senior director Mat Piscatella thinks that there is an upper limit to how far companies can push their hardware prices. This ceiling, however, is yet to be discovered.

“Some very tough choices with long-ranging impact will have to be made by all hardware manufacturers both now and in the coming months when it comes to pricing and production. Yes, at some point there is a viable price cap. What that cap is, however, is still a bit of a mystery and dependent on numerous factors, both quantifiable and not so much. This market has never before been in this position, and we’re learning many things about it as we go.”

As for whether prices will come back down once geopolitical issues are settled and there’s no longer a RAM shortage, Tiago Reis of Newzoo isn’t quite sure. He believes that the price hikes indicate a higher price floor – the minimum a company can charge for its products.

“Our base case is that the industry is entering a period where the pricing floor for gaming hardware is likely higher than it was before,” he said. “Newzoo’s market data shows that engagement remains concentrated around established ecosystems and older titles, while overall growth is increasingly driven by monetization rather than major expansion in player time. Our interpretation is that these conditions reduce pressure on platform holders to aggressively subsidize hardware in the way previous generations sometimes did. That doesn’t mean prices can never come down, but a return to earlier pricing expectations looks increasingly unlikely.”

van Dreunen, on the other hand, has a bleak outlook on the future. He noted that in 2024, software became more expensive and the prices never quite came down. The same trend might now be coming to hardware. “Naturally, it will catalyze a shift to new ways to play that don’t rely on a large upfront investment from consumers, and I expect a large part of the industry to shift to subscriptions and ad-based revenue models,” he said. Unfortunately, more budget-conscious gamers “will soon find that no one is catering to them. Instead, I expect Big Tech firms will try to rent them a virtual PC or console in the cloud for a monthly fee.”

Interestingly, McWhirter believes that Nintendo will be hit quite hard with these new market conditions, since it released a brand-new console relatively recently. “It’s an imperative that it must grow the Switch 2 installed base as quickly as possible.”

Other analysts, like Piscatella and Ahmad, have noted that there are plenty of low-cost ways for gamers to play games such as internet cafes, the availability of older games, and mobile and cloud platforms.

“Gaming as a whole has plenty of low-cost or free gaming options, particularly in the mobile and free-to-play space, that directly contradict the notion of being a luxury hobby and are more likely to thrive in the ‘current economic conditions’ that companies have been fond of citing as the reason for their higher prices,” said Piscatella. Looking to future console generations, Elliot believes we will see more and more games released on available platforms, like PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2. He also believes that “cross-gen is going to be huge” when it’s time for a new console cycle.

Bringing up comparisons with the mid-2020 Covid-19-induced supply chain issues, Dr Toto expressed some optimism about the future.

“I believe in 2028 and beyond, components should become more readily available again,” he said. “I might be too optimistic here, but today reminds me of the supply crisis in the early COVID days when consoles were hard to get for months worldwide. Back then, it was also hard to imagine a world with PS5 or Xbox units piled up to the ceiling in retail stores – which became reality rather suddenly after the supply chain was fixed again.”

Ultimately, however, Piscatella acknowledges that it is difficult to figure out what will happen to the gaming industry in the future, since all current assumptions could change in a matter of weeks, if not days, or even hours.

“Anyone that says they know what happens next is either lying to themselves or trying to sell something,” he said. “It’s the most hold-onto-your-butts moment I’ve seen in 20 years in the industry, and it both worries and saddens me.”

We’re surprised, to be sure, but we’re also suspicious that Valve might be taking a clever approach to its inventory management to ensure there’s enough demand for the console before it returns to sale again. We could be wrong, though, as this latest batch has clearly found enough takers, and fast.

It’s going to be an interesting few months ahead for Valve and its console as it navigates component shortages and their rising costs. However, there might be nothing to worry about if the Steam Deck continues to be as desirable as it currently seems to be among consumers.

For the moment, however, those among you who weren’t able to get their hands on one might have a long wait ahead until the next batch becomes available. And if you’re waiting for the Steam Machine, it might be an even more costly proposition, based on rumors.

He also made a note that these estimates were from two months ago. With the prices of memory and storage having only gone up since then, this likely means that the Steam Machine will in turn be much more expensive despite its mid-range CPU and GPU specs.

“Take this with a grain of salt, because it was just whispers in my ear, but back when I was told a figure for what Valve’s estimated price they’d have to set the starting price of Steam Machine, it was still higher than today’s Steam Deck prices,” he wrote. “And that was 2 months ago.”

Responding to another social media user about whether the price hikes for the Steam Deck have been made to allow Valve to eat some losses by selling the Steam Machine for cheaper, Lynch responded by saying that, while he doesn’t know, he doubts that this might be the case.

This leak follows a report from last month that had indicated that the price for the Steam Machine has been heavily impacted by storage and memory prices. Speaking to Polygon about the then-recent Steam Controller launch, hardware engineer Steve Cardinali noted that the controller was released because it “doesn’t have RAM in it, and it’s not as complicated to start getting out the door for us.”

At the time, Lynch had noted that there has been quite a big jump in Valve’s internal prices for the Steam Machine before and after the price of RAM. “I’ve been told some Valve internal pricing targets they had before AND after RAM skyrocketed,” he wrote. “Machine is affected the most. Frame is not as bad.”

Valve hasn’t yet announced an official launch date for the Steam Machine, and while the company had mentioned that it wants to ship it, along with the Steam Controller and the Steam Frame, in the first half of 2026, that window is quickly slipping by.

“Our goal of shipping all three products in the first half of the year has not changed,” explained Valve in February. “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.”

In March, the company reaffirmed its plans to ship “all three products this year.” However, due to the ongoing memory shortages, the company has only recently been able to ship one of the products—Steam Controller. In the meantime, the company is still working on its launch plans, and will share more details as those plans are finalized.

If you’ve been in the market for a shiny new unit, you might want to sit down for this next bit. The 512 GB model now costs an eye-watering $789, up from $549 (so roughly $240 more). The 1 TB model’s now too close to the thousand dollar mark, clocking in at $949, up from $649 (an increase of $300). We can’t say we didn’t see this coming, but it’s still quite a shock.

Valve’s reasoning behind the hike in its announcement is also the reason for the shortages in the first place. It’s going to be interesting to see how the new prices affect sales and whether there will be any pushback from the gaming community. And how will this affect the upcoming Steam Machine, whose price has reportedly skyrocketed after initially facing delays due to the ongoing worldwide RAM shortages? You can be sure we’ll be here telling you about it as soon as it happens, so stay tuned.

This includes full controller support with appropriate input icons, the ability to bring up the on-screen keyboard when needed, a lack of compatibility warnings, and potential launchers being navigable with a controller. There’s also support for the Deck’s default resolution of 1280×800 or 1280×720, appropriate default settings, legible text, and good support for Proton, including for anti-cheat systems and any other middleware.

Aside from getting Steam Deck Verified, the update also addresses frame rate drops that players might have experienced whenever they use the scope of a sniper rifle. For more details, check out the full patch notes below.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach was released on PC just last month after having spent several months only being available on PS5. The PC release made a strong debut, peaking at 57,682 concurrent players. While Kojima Productions hasn’t revealed too many details about sales, Alinea Analytics estimated that it had sold 425,000 copies on Steam in its release month. This, combined with a previous report indicating 1.4 million sales on PS5, would bring total sales of the title up to over 2 million.

Shortly after the PC release, lead level designer Hiraoki Yoshiike spoke about the more fast-paced nature of the storytelling in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, thanks to world-building being toned down, and how it was done this way because “Kojima wanted more people to enjoy the game all the way to the end. This was an order he provided.”

He went on to discuss how, since much of the world-building had already been done with the original Death Stranding, with the sequel, the studio could focus on telling the ongoing plot rather than having to divert their attention to more world-building elements.

For more details about the PC release of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, check out our review.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach update 1.3 patch notes:

• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is now Steam Deck verified.
• Fixed hitches and stutter that could occur when zooming in with sniper rifles.
• Implemented performance optimizations.
• Fixed multiple rare crashes and improved overall stability.
• Addressed various minor graphics-related bugs.
• Various input and user interface related improvements and bug fixes.
• Implemented various text and localization related fixes.

“They were targeting 2028 [as far as I know], but the whole RAM/NAND situation could delay it,” wrote KeplerL2. “Also, since they don’t have a semi-custom SoC, unlike the PS6/Xbox, if it gets delayed, it could end up with better specs.”

Since its launch in February 2022, the Steam Deck has proven to be quite successful for Valve, and recent trends in memory prices have even left the company to deal with greater demand than it can supply.

The handheld features a quad-core AMD CPU running on Zen 2 architecture with 8 threads, a clock speed of between 2.4 GHz and 3.5 GHz, depending on the software. It’s paired with an RDNA 2-based GPU with eight compute units clocked between 1 and 1.6 GHz, and 16 GB of unified LPDDR5 memory either clocked at 5500 MT/s or 6400 MT/s, depending on whether you have the LCD or OLED version of the Steam Deck.

Valve’s thoughts on making a new version of the Steam Deck have largely revolved around the company waiting for a major generational jump for hardware, not just in terms of raw specs but also energy efficiency. In October 2024, Valve designer Lawrence Yang said there was no reason to work on yearly iterations of the handheld.

“It is important to us, and we’ve tried to be really clear, we are not doing the yearly cadence. We’re not going to do a bump every year. There’s no reason to do that. And, honestly, from our perspective, that’s kind of not really fair to your customers to come out with something so soon that’s only incrementally better. So we really do want to wait for a generational leap in compute without sacrificing battery life before we ship the real second generation of Steam Deck. But it is something that we’re excited about, and we’re working on.”

In more recent times, the company has had its hands full with trying to launch the Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and new Steam Controller, which were unveiled back in November 2025. While there hasn’t yet been any solid launch window announced for the three products, the company is still trying to release them in 2026, and that “More updates will be shared as we finalize our plans.” Hardware delays have largely been blamed on memory and storage shortages.

A game must run at 1080p and 30 FPS to be verified for the Steam Machine, just as it does on a Steam Deck. That comes straight from Valve at GDC 2026. That doesn’t mean the upcoming gaming device from Valve is incapable of going higher than those numbers, but it is the minimum a game needs if it aims to be verified for the platform.

The Steam Frame is a tad more demanding if you’re going to be running your titles off its native chip, with a 90 FOS requirement for VR titles. 2D titles only need 30 FPS at 720p, though. There was also talk about offline mode for games right off the bat, optimizing titles for lower-specced machines, and improving controller support, all of which was advice aimed at developers looking to release titles on SteamOS.

We’re looking forward to getting our hands on the upcoming Steam Machine and Steam Frame, and we think we’re not alone in our excitement to check out Valve’s way of taking the fight to the PlayStation and Xbox in the near future.

In South Korea, the 512 GB model will be priced at ₩898,000, and the 1 TB model at ₩1,048,000. Taiwan will see prices raised to NT$18,980 for the 512 GB model and NT$22,480 for the 1 TB model. Currently, no price hikes are planned for Hong Kong.

The announcement came from Komodo Station—the company in charge of selling the Steam Deck in the Asian markets. And while no explicit reason has been noted, it comes in light of “rising logistics costs that have continued since the [Steam Deck]’s launch, as well as recent fluctuations in the exchange rate environment,” according to the report (via machine translation).

Back in February, Valve had started issuing a warning on the official listing for the Steam Deck OLED. The company also confirmed that production on the Steam Deck LCD 256 GB had been stopped, with any available units being leftover stock.

“Steam Deck OLED may be out-of-stock intermittently in some regions due to memory and storage shortages,” wrote Valve. “Steam Deck LCD 256GB is no longer in production, and once sold out, will no longer be available.”

Valve has been seeing many of its hardware plans affected by global memory shortages. The company confirmed that its plans to launch the Steam Machine, the Steam Frame, and the new Steam Controller had been pushed back, with the new release window being the first half of 2026.

“Our goal of shipping all three products in the first half of the year has not changed,” explained the company. “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.”

In the meantime, Sony is also seeing adverse effects of the RAM shortage, with a report from last month indicating that the company might push the launch of the PS6 back as far as 2029. Nintendo is also reportedly keeping an eye on memory prices, with a price hike possibly coming later in the year. Neither company has made any statements, however.

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa had spoken about keeping an eye on market conditions like memory shortages and trade tariffs back in January. At the time, he said, “We aim to address this by advancing component procurement over the medium to long term.”