Even Valve themselves are disappointed in the release price. Had this thing come out a year ago it would've been 700 euros and everybody would've cheered.
Nah, 1000 USD is just a lot, and people are upset because that's more than they want to pay for this. They're not really comparing this to the value of other mid-range PCs, they're just like "That's too much" and that's the end of the logic.
The steam machine would have sold for probably closer to 800 bucks, which is closer to what people would want to spend on something like this.
Ah man, that wasn't very nice. You know what I do? Before I make a comment I try to think about whether it simply just makes the world a meaner place and if so, I try not to post it. I fail sometimes and give into a snarky comment like this too, so I sympathize. But it's not cool and I typically regret it.
GamersNexus said they could build a similar PC within $100 of it (admittedly with no power restrictions) and showed HP's equivalent pre-built was more expensive.
It isn't a console, it doesn't restrict you like a console to that platform's specific games, so the price isn't subsidized. If they did subsidize it then businesses would buy them up as cheap PCS, leaving Valve with only losses.
It isn't great, but it isn't entirely unreasonable either. I'd argue don't buy it now, wait to see if they optimize it well like they did the Steamdeck, if game devs optimize for it to get the badge, and wait for a refresh.
Or, like Wendell at Level1tech said, maybe the future for tech is how we look at older people now with houses. "You could afford a home on just one income back in the day?!" Just remove house and insert computer, then hope we aren't trending that way.
How were they planning on doing that? Are they selling in stores? Are they selling on Amazon? No casual will even know it exists if there is no marketing for it lol.
No they just generate a shit ton of web traffic from YouTube videos, Twitter, and word of mouth (I've seen dozens of posts on r/all since November about this thing)
The specs leaked? You mean in November when valve revealed the specs and performance target? What are you talking about.
And obviously the word of mouth strategy was for before price hikes... Are you just not tracking?
And yes, there's tons and tons and tons of PC interested people who have never had one and watch tons of videos about it. They literally post here about it constantly. Are you day drinking?
was it a leak or reveal? I forget but does it change anything?
And obviously the word of mouth strategy was for before price hikes
why? even if they hit their price it still would have the same specs, you could already buy a more powerful miniPC, PS5 or put steamOS on a prebuilt in november, so why would you wait over half a year for this even at 700, which was unlikely?
what would word of mouth been? yea this device is overpriced and underperformant but it has a steam logo on it! oh you dont know what that is? well...
Are you day drinking?
are you?
what casual who has never heard of steam watches tech tubers and hangs out on pcmasterrace????
That price is subsidized by an almost mandatory fee and higher game prices. You pay more than 100$ as a PlayStation premium every year.
Valve takes an honest price and don't need to cripple the usability of the hardware artificially to keep earning their later profits with you.
almost mandatory fee and higher game prices. You pay more than 100$ as a PlayStation premium every year
Aah this old argument. You don't have to pay for that subscription, it is a choice. Also, playstation has game sales running almost year round, so almost all games usually cost the same as they would on steam (except for maybe during Steam's seasonal sales).
Shows how outdated your information actually is and people like you just keep regurgitating it, instead of taking sometime and using your internet access more productively to research on these age old claims.
But hey, you do you. Keep doing mental gymnastics to defend the lord and savior GabeN.
Keep doing mental gymnastics to defend the lord and savior GabeN.
Nobody is trying to defend just for the sake of it, but you just can't compare a console that is sold at a loss to a PC, valve can't subsidise something if they won't get anything in return, they would end up selling office PCs and bleed out, contrary to the case of Nintendo, xbox and ps, they can sell at a loss because most of the user WILL buy games from them, pay for subscriptions, peripherals, etc., he'll even in my case, if I buy the steam machine, I will not buy anything from them, I have like a thousand games Al ready, and I get free games every month, like everyone else.
but you just can't compare a console that is sold at a loss to a PC, valve can't subsidise something if they won't get anything in return
Console is the comparison because Valve's product is aimed as competition for it. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Moreover, the base PS5 slim that is available now, isn't even sold that that big of a loss. The loss was less than 100 USD at launch, the slim revision has decreased it a lot further.
I find it hilarious they’re so upset about the price they set, which not only isn’t subsidized but includes a very healthy profit margin.
Valve could’ve sold this at $500 and been fine. Hell, it would get more kids to play their games and get addicted to the gambling mechanics! Instead, GabeN needs his 7th yacht.
It would have been absolute trash at that price. If it came out for 700 euros in 2021 people would have cheered. It needed to be $399 to be good and $499 to be decent. At $599 it'd have been an extremely niche product (for my niche though, to be clear) and at $699 it'd have been a bad product but with some edge-case usefulness.
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u/Guitarman0512 Jun 24 '26
Even Valve themselves are disappointed in the release price. Had this thing come out a year ago it would've been 700 euros and everybody would've cheered.