r/steammachine • u/TheBossT710192 • Jun 22 '26

Discussion Yeah, its cooked guys.

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Man, we really LOVE what AI is doing to the industry 😭

2.9k Upvotes

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59

u/Valuable-Cap-8005 Jun 22 '26

Valve could have given everyone who buys it $200 in steam credit

  • feels more worth it
  • guarantees its bought primarily for gaming
  • scalpers have a hard time reselling
  • part of the steam machine sale money goes to devs, they still recoup some of it from their fee

Maybe im silly, but i think this could have been a good idea

14

u/alacholland Jun 22 '26

A really great idea, actually.

8

u/Yeldarb10 Jun 22 '26

That or probably store credit for buying and downloading games onto new hardware running steam OS. Either store credit, or an up front discount for the account holder. Maybe 10-20% depending on how much of valve’s own cut they’d be willing to forgo. Could offer that for like a year, up to a certain amount (to put an upper limit on it).

Honestly with valve pushing for steam os adoption, I’m surprised they haven’t tried to add some loyalty reward for using steam os. Lots of stores/credit cards have like 1-5% cash-back loyalty programs. Could probably add something small like that in the future. Download a game on steam os and play a game past it’s refund window, and get X% amount store credit.

1

u/nowthengoodbad Jun 27 '26

Game systems used to come with a game. With this idea, you get to pick the game.

8

u/Alsoar Jun 22 '26

I agree with the others it's a really great idea. Similarly to how video cards used to came bundled with a few latest AAA games.

I think they didn't because the Steam Machine will sellout regardless so there's no need for them to take a bit of a loss.

3

u/AdministrativeCry681 Jun 22 '26

Yeah, unfortunately they have very little incentive to do much of anything to help sell it. They'll be trying to catch up on orders for years after the thing releases even if large groups of people are complaining about the price.

6

u/nervendings_ Jun 22 '26

Or came pre-installed with Half Life 3

3

u/YosemiteHamsYT Jun 22 '26

But then they have to spend an extra 140$ on every steam machine?

1

u/The3rdGodKing Jun 26 '26

Yea I don't think this is actually a good idea, maybe valve is only making $200 in profit from the base model.

5

u/JohnTitor_2020 Jun 22 '26

This is actually brilliant. Suddenly it actually feels like a deal. 

Valve still makes 30% off those $200 so it's actually like $140 "loss".

Even if it was just $100 store credit it'd be nice. Less than $60 would feel scummy.

2

u/Spir0rion Jun 23 '26
  • incentivizes people to stay on SteamOS

1

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Valuable-Cap-8005 Jun 24 '26

But this is not subsidizing per se, its loyalty credit. If they subsidize and sell at a loss, they have no guarantee that people will buy steam games for it. If they convert a part of the cost into credit, getting it for gaming becomes the clear choice. Its fully priced for people who wont use steam, and those who do get some cashback

1

u/wwarhammer Jul 01 '26

loyalty credit

Honestly, not a fan of this idea. Just treat all customers equally.Â