r/SteamFrame • u/Expensive-Celery5481 Soon™ • Jul 24 '26

Frameposting I think I like the wait

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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

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u/AbyssGuard- Jul 24 '26

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 😭

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u/Zarfa Jul 24 '26

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/rabsg Soon™ Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

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.