In a blog post, Valve detailed its Verified programs for Steam Machine and Steam Frame, and insists both pieces of hardware are still coming this summer.
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Everyone over here arguing about the price and I’m just remembering how we got Half Life Alyx when they released the Index and hoping they surprise release HL3 with the launch of the Steam Machine and have it compatible with the PC.
Steam Machine is (or will be) a PC, so I’m not sure how they would/could make HL3 and not have it be compatible with PC. Or am I missing something?
I’m sure it would be, I’m more just referring to how HL Alyx was VR only and upset a lot of people
Steamdeck increased in price 200-300 dollars and still sold out. It made the Switch 2’s $50 price increase seem cheap. Steam machine is going to be way overpriced and still do well. I don’t have any faith prices will go back to anything reasonable anymore because people have shown they’ll buy it at these prices.
Before we get our hopes up, remember that saying “launch in summer” still could mean up to 4 months from now, summer technically ends in September.
Before the comments just become another pricing argument, I want to say I’m still hyped. These look like really cool products.
Hard to be hyped about something I’m almost inevitably not going to be able to afford, though. No matter how badly I want the frame.
I’m excited for the frame, just worried about the cost.
Definitely, Especially the Frame.
Still suspicious that they won’t even settle for a price range. Summer is almost here, so they have to have them made already. At this point I’m certain it’s going to be 4 digits and not even barely
It’s only suspicious if you haven’t been watching the wildly swinging RAM pricing. It would be a far worse experience for Steam and for the consumer if they set a price and had to keep jacking it up before the product had even been released.
There’s no winning strategy to reveal the price. Announce a low price early and release a much more expensive product, they get flayed alive. Announce a high price, public interest falls off a cliff. Keeping potential customers guessing at least keeps the Gabecube in the news cycle.
Don’t announce a price and see every single comment section devolve into pricing discourse.
Has it really been “wildly swinging”? Been pretty solidly one direction, no?
No, because some of the supply constraints we thought were locked in contracts were actually just handshake agreements that fell through, so that frees up supply and sends prices back down a bit. There’s also the part where this came for RAM first, but then SSDs were hit on a lag because a lot of the same tech is used, and then HDDs were hit on a lag because SSDs were scarce. HDDs don’t really factor into these devices, but there are ripple effects that can make predicting long-term costs difficult.
Where have you seen prices coming down at all? I have only seen up up up.
RAM prices came down a bit in mid-April, as I said, when one of those deals fell through because it wasn’t actually set in stone, and one of those major AI companies was less cash rich than everyone thought. That doesn’t mean it’s back to where we started, but they came down from their peak, at least for a time, and have somewhat stabilized since then. We’re also seeing data centers meet opposition, not just legally but logistically, and folks are trying to read the tea leaves there for prices, too.
Must be regional because I’ve been looking and have not seen a dip 😭
Sure, even if it has never turned downwards - then constantly rising prices still makes the point.
They might have to increase it later, but the batches they already have are of a known price. This just looks like they want to see how much ram prices soar so they can see how much they can ask for the thing
Of all companies, I think Valve deserves the benefit of the doubt. You’re ascribing business practices to Valve that I have no memory of them using.
They literally just upped the price of their steam decks by a few hundred dollars, with no hardware upgrades, to compensate for the increased price of said hardware. They’re a business, they’ll charge what nets them the most money. What other reason would they have to not announce the price than not yet deciding what would be most profitable for them? They need to strike a balance between charging enough to cover the cost of components and not so much that they start to lose potential sales, so it’s exactly like the other guy said, they’re waiting to see what the prices of components will do before announcing prices for their products that are optimal for money-making.
This just looks like they want to see how much ram prices soar so they can see how much they can ask for the thing
Charging more to cover their costs is NOT the same thing as maliciously price gouging (which is what was alluded to here).
If the cost of materials goes up, the cost of the device goes up. They’re a business not a charity. I think we both fully agree that they are waiting to see where prices land closer to launch to determine the final pricing of the device. But I don’t agree that they’re optimizing for profit. They already know what margin they expect from this device and might even be planning on eating some margin to keep the price competitive.
The Steamdeck, pre-RAMpocalypse, was maybe one of the best values in gaming hardware, in part because they were subsidizing the price like Sony and Microsoft do for home consoles. Any other handheld PC on the market was 2-3x the price. They can’t be expecting that same kind of sales volume from the Steam Machine, so the amount they can afford to subsidize will be lower for sure.
I think I’m more likely going to buy the Playnix console of it comes back in stock. The Steam Machine won’t fit in my TV unit and based on the reviews of the Steam Controller I’m not that bothered by its inclusion.
I’ll wait for the price steam sets, and compare it to the performance of minis. I’ll give Valve a boost, because I believe in the quality, and Devs will target that hardware.
But, my Beelink mini, I’m using as a sever, has been going strong.
yeah I mean I did not buy a steamdeck until the first price drop.
