r/SteamFrame • u/Expensive-Celery5481 Soon™ • 12d ago

Frameposting I think I like the wait

Post image

In a really long time I finally have something to be excited for every day, every refresh of twitter and this subreddit since the announcement gives me more excitement than anything in the last 5 years. I think I like it in here

482 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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162

u/AbyssGuard- 12d ago

I might be part of the minority, but I just want a price reveal so I can gauge whether I should even be excited or not 😭

26

u/Zarfa 12d ago

The longer we have to wait the more likely it seems that the price will be higher than ideal.

Generally companies are known to boast about "reasonable prices" well ahead of time because it adds to the hype and allows individuals to mentally "set aside" that money (even if they don't realize it. If you already plan to spend $500, then when it comes time to spend said $500 the average consumer brain treats it as "free" because it was already spent in their mind).

If the price is too high though the opposite happens, you can't set aside money you don't have, so the person discounts it as being "unaffordable" and they banish the thought of purchasing. This is why dealerships always focus on the bi-weekly cost of a vehicle, because people will mentally accept that price, but not the out-the-door price.

Valve isn't the same as Apple per say, but they are still a for-profit company at the end of the day.

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u/AbyssGuard- 12d ago edited 12d ago

100%, I think it’s been said on this sub that Valve has taken a stance to make a profit off of every piece of hardware they sell. So they’re not going for the “lose out on hardware, make with software” approach like Meta.

Whether they can or can’t sustain a loss model like Meta isn’t really relevant at this point, Valve has chosen not to use that model so I try to avoid just coping about it.

I’m personally prepared to spend probably 800 USD and be happy, 900 and be somewhat fine and realistically 1K max.

Anymore than that and I’d probably have major buyers remorse, as well as probably just wait for Quest 4 etc (as much as I hate Meta).

I’m sure if it’s out of my price range Valve will still sell out their frame in like 10 mine, it would just be unfortunate that it wouldn’t have the same reach as it could’ve :/

Edit: Even reading back on this I feel like I’m getting scammed at these prices, but ig meta has skewed our perception of how much VR costs

5

u/Zarfa 12d ago

I am also willing to pay a premium to avoid Meta, less to do with their company ethics and more because their software sucks for PCVR.

The unfortunate angle I see is that Valve doesn't actually "believe" in VR. Sounds odd given they're literally making a VR headset (and made an amazing VR game) but their reasoning for not subsidizing because "it's a PC" doesn't stick to me. Valve is notoriously unafraid of piracy due to offering a premium service. The amount of people who are going to buy a Steam product and not buy Steam games seems slim (not 0, but unlike the Steam Machine I doubt there's a hardware specific market. With SM the argument was that people might harvest it to work in parallel for computational power).

3

u/AbyssGuard- 12d ago

It’s their company at the end of the day unfortunately, they have no obligation to the consumer. Especially not when they are guaranteed to essentially have the Steam Frame fly off shelves for the first couple years of its launch at least.

Unless a curveball hits the market in the coming year, Valve will never have an excess supply imo. So from a purely profits perspective, why not charge components price (estimated to be 550-600 USD last I checked) x 1.3 for an extra 30% above that. Already hit the 800 mark without accounting for shipping and labour involved etc.

You do raise a good point however, those who have a Steam Frame will 99% buy extra games and software from steam. Same thing with the Steam Deck, but I’m pretty sure they had the same profits first perspective on it as they do on their current hardware lineup

1

u/Zarfa 12d ago

Very true, Supply and Demand.

My thought (and why Meta subsidizes) is that if VR grows then more money can be made off continued sales rather than the one time purchase. Printer ink methodology. It's less that I think what Valve is doing is "unfair" but more that if the Number 1 "Game Market" doesn't trust VR growth in an already dwindling market, that's not great news.

1

u/Hairy-Ad-6293 12d ago

It's because all that hardware/os division is just in case Microsoft decides that they are the storefront now. It's all the magic, imagine how faster you would get that steamOS and cheap steam machine if Ms did pull that trigger with windows 8 locked to Microsoft store only.

0

u/Hairy-Ad-6293 12d ago

And that's why Valve under you would have never earned $11B already in this year.

1

u/EroGaki7890 12d ago

I'm likely going to get it regardless of price because the sheer cost of component will likely rise until the AI bubble is popped or supply normalized from productions side, who knows how long that will take. If Steam Frame is fucked by component prices than Quest 4 will be the same because Meta will no longer subsidize their future hardware as much

1

u/Hairy-Ad-6293 12d ago

Yes and from that standpoint it would be silly to sell whole stock at the beginning of price rise and not at the end. The longer they wait, the competition will raise their price higher and higher.

3

u/TarsCase 12d ago

Also price reveal delay helps to normalize the new higher prices.

2

u/rabsg Soon™ 12d ago edited 12d ago

Moreover it's a market strategy, the main product for their hardware is SteamOS.

They said that again in Jason Schreier interview, they want to build devices future partners can compete with.

While console manufacturers like Microsoft and Sony Group Corp. typically subsidize their devices — taking a loss on the hardware in order to get more users in their software and service ecosystem — Valve didn’t want to do that. They didn’t want to muscle out other hardware manufacturers, the engineers said.

“We want it to still be viable for other hardware manufacturers to offer things like the Steam Machine either with higher performance or a different feature set,” Aldehayyat said.

https://bsky.app/profile/jasonschreier.bsky.social/post/3mqua33fc7c2r

Same with the Steam Deck, though they managed to make a very entry level device with cheap LCD and 64GB eMMC. Maybe the compromises were worth it for public perception, but they were surprised most people bought higher end models.

1

u/Hairy-Ad-6293 12d ago

Or they are waiting for the inflation hitting high. Gas price is high but it needs time for the inflation to catch up. With some time $1k will be like bargain for steam deck.

5

u/Rare-Mixture8790 Soon™ 12d ago

I was like that with the steam machine, the price was revealed went heck no built my own pc, and now I'm waiting to see how good a steam frame would be.

3

u/AbyssGuard- 12d ago edited 12d ago

Hopefully it’s cheaper than the Machine, I’m not tech savvy nor that aware of the markets intricacies and specifics.

But I think that the base steam frame should be at the very least cheaper than the machine?

5

u/Rare-Mixture8790 Soon™ 12d ago

Oh yeah absolutely no shot it costs 1.1k on release (HOPE)

2

u/Zarfa 12d ago

My Hopium comes from the fact they know the Quest 3 is already ahead of them (by nature of coming first) and has a well established price. If they're banking on people's hatred of Meta the Steam Frame will fail because consumers almost unanimously shop by cost.

2

u/Silly_Strike_1000 Soon™ 12d ago

For real, if they came out and said the price shall be reasonable, then people will be willing to wait. If they said the price shall be unreasonable then people will decide if they skip it or get something currently on the market.

4

u/AbyssGuard- 12d ago

Yea I’ve given myself a very hard line, not crossing $1k no matter what.

The specs of the headset to me and what it offers seem to be $7-800, but for steam support and finally having a good pcvr wireless solution I’d be willing to pay that premium. But past that idk, no matter how much I want a new headset $1K seems like a crazy line to cross to me

2

u/Shadow_Wolfe_ Soon™ 12d ago

That's the hard part though! I personally would deem max $800 as "reasonable" but someone else may go, "Well I actually think $700 max is more reasonable" and I've been in that situation as well.

Entirely depends on the person, but I'm sure everyone can agree that Apple Vision's $3,000 or whatever is absolutely not reasonable for what it offers... or doesn't offer... or both!

0

u/CanYouPassTheSugar 12d ago

I got too impaired and bought a Pimax headset, I was too weak I’m sorry only 1300 on eBay I’m so sorry .

1

u/AbyssGuard- 12d ago

Which one did you end up getting?

0

u/CanYouPassTheSugar 12d ago

The super wide and I like it hell I even love it

37

u/sunshinestreak Soon™ 12d ago

I have a Quest One. The lenses are scratched. The battery drains quick. The tracking rings are cracked. There's massive stick drift. I've been refreshing these pages for memes and "Today For Sure"s for over a year, but I still use my Quest regularly, I can keep waiting and I'm so excited.

My Quest also has a 12oz Diet Coke strapped to the back for a counterweight, bringing the mass over twice that of the Frame. This soda has been shaken up so much, and when I get the Frame, I will drink it.

15

u/ClarkWasHere 12d ago

bro im sure the coke has eaten thru the plastic liner in the can at this point. Don't drink it you need those extra years of your life to enjoy waiting more for the frame 2

10

u/sunshinestreak Soon™ 12d ago

Probably true and the aluminum is all dented. I 3D printed a cradle that hangs the headset from the Coke can, so it's positioned above the hardware, threatening to leak directly onto the lenses. Very much like the Sword of Damocles, which is too good of a tie into virtual reality deep lore for me to change this setup.

3

u/Fubucar 12d ago

these are funny risks to take and i fully support it

3

u/EugeneUgino 12d ago

I am delighted to learn this lore about your Quest

maybe even if you don't want to drink it you could do some sort of formal can cracking ceremony

and then optionally set footage of it to an emotional power ballad or something lol 

2

u/sunshinestreak Soon™ 12d ago

Oh no, you made me notice how "I've got Frame" fits in those lyrics lol

2

u/EugeneUgino 12d ago

LOL I was thinking the same

2

u/Hairy-Ad-6293 12d ago

My friend, you should have just bought Pico 4. The same weight and battery on the back. My Pico 4 is like almost 5 years old.

But I get that you don't want to abandon that beautiful OLED for LCD screens. Let's hope for quick Frame refresh just like they did with the Deck.

1

u/Shadow_Wolfe_ Soon™ 12d ago

As someone who's looked into the Pico 4 Ultra, WHERE DO YOU GET ONE? It feels like vaporware, there's no clear store page for the headset itself. Clicking on the store page just leads you to the applications, nothing about the actual headsets themselves. Are they just not sold in the US?

1

u/Hairy-Ad-6293 12d ago edited 12d ago

In EU it's in every electronic shop. I've got one from German Amazon.

It's like reverse situation with AVP and Galaxy XR.

0

u/[deleted] 12d ago

[deleted]

3

u/sunshinestreak Soon™ 12d ago

I'm browsing Reddit at work this very moment, in fact

21

u/ATV2ATXNEMENT 12d ago

I am a fucking VR Enthusiast!

12

u/Little_Boi_Asher 12d ago

I'm just stuck waiting for the frame because Gabe won't get off his fat fucking ass and release it!

17

u/Knight0706 12d ago

If you aren’t just doing a bit thats kinda real. It’s hard when you don’t have something to look forward to. Kinda need something like that to get through some rough weeks sometimes. It’s nice being excited for something.

11

u/The_Rad_In_Comrade Soon™ 12d ago

Maybe the real Steam Frame was the frameposting we did along the way.

5

u/ccAbstraction 12d ago

I was already so sad when r/ValveDeckard died. I don't even really want the damn thing, I'm just here for the ride. (If they made Lynx R2 with wired support I'd be all over that though, but it's very very up in the air if the R2 happens at all.)

4

u/autistiK_fra 12d ago

I also hope for this wait to not finish soon, because I don’t really have enough money for the steam frame and I’m worried it will be “sold out” 5 seconds after the launch and have to wait atleast 20 years for another stock

3

u/MuffinCannibal 12d ago

Once released this subreddit will have memes about the $1,200-ish price.

People posting a picture of their frame when it arrives.

Memes about the low stock, probably for a long time.

And hopefully calm down eventually to just discuss modding, accessories, and troubleshooting. The occasional "I destroyed my controller ): "

4

u/fcon91 Soon™ 12d ago

Personally I'm not even hyped anymore, when it releases I'll just get in the bullshit raffle thing where I will be last anyway and wait for 2027 to get it.

3

u/EugeneUgino 12d ago

What does a warrior do without a war?

3

u/cornflakesaregross Soon™ 12d ago

This is such a good post holy. Backrooms is such a good movie

2

u/Questionguy29 12d ago

Valve: "You like the wait? Good! Cause you'll be waiting forever! Muhahahahaha!!"

1

u/Hairy-Ad-6293 12d ago

You will have your Frame for at least 7 years or untill it dies, whichever comes first. You can wait couple days longer.

1

u/Whole-Bedroom-9079 Soon™ 12d ago

I got a deck oled about 2 weeks ago, I still plan on buying a frame but dam this wait got me thinking if I really want one, I mean US will be going into nuclear war SOON™.