Seems like Steinberg is out of the hardware business!
Not that they’ve really been in it … it’s all Yamaha behind the scenes I suspect.
But now there won’t be “Steinberg” on the box, it will be “Yamaha”.
Possibly SB relieved not to have the take the blame for appalling Yamaha support of their products?
Hope no one lost their job at SB.
It’s pretty old news actually, Yamaha has always made the hardware as a collaboration with Steinberg.
I understand that … but there has always been “Steinberg” labelled hardware and “Yamaha” labelled hardware. Now it will just be “Yamaha”. Thus the announcement in mid October 2025. So not old news… to me anyway.
Your unboxed “Steinberg” interface might just have become a collectors piece! 
Personally (as someone still nursing several Midex MIDI interfaces!) I’m quite happy that Steinberg can now focus on software, because it always seemed to me to be almost inevitable that they would eventually have to stop supporting every hardware they ever produced.
Let the hardware experts – like Yamaha, RME – do the hardware.
The old sceptic in me can’t help but wonder, if this is a strategic precursor move on the way to an eventual split - i.e. Yamaha divesting themselves from Steinberg?
Hardly, I would say
I hope you’re right.
so is this the end of my UR44?
No, nothing to worry about. You can work with your UR44 for many years to come!
No, in fact, I would say it will be much better served by Yamaha. I recently dusted off my Yamaha “black boxes” (an FB-01 and a TX81Z) and they still work, and the documentation for them is still available online, though no longer officially supported.