*** Valve Steam Machine ***

[Hotwired]

Yup, with the SD now at £779 there is little chance of the Steam Machine being launched at a price which represents good value. Really makes me wonder what the PS6 and Xbox's next console will be priced at !

You've seen the price of memory and ssds go up hugely before your eyes, newly priced devices with those components can never be good value when comparing to old pricing.

There will be a combination of people giving up their luxury buying or accepting the new norm.

And give it a second, there will be companies folding if they can't get people to accept higher prices due to higher component costs.

 

[malachi]

I'm retro gaming more and more these days, got my DS out of storage to try the £10 DSPico I picked up, it's ace.

With my existing Mister, Anbernic handhelds and Odin 2 I'm pretty good up to PS2 so never short of something to play.

I won't be paying the crazy prices out there for new tech, I quite fancied a Steam machine, but happy to wait it out until the AI bubble inevitably bursts and hardware returns to a reasonable price.

I'm into retro games as well but I'm not going to ignore that's getting expensive now.

The Mister has had a number of price increases even before the AI craze.

 

[SimonRigga]

but but but... it's Valve... the saviours of pc gaming with their 20% developer surcharge.. you will all love the £1200 price point for ps4 hardware and buy it..

all hail the mighty Gabe.. aaaaaahhhhhhhmmmmmmeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnn

 

[Timber]

I'm definitely not in the market for the Steam Machine now (for a moment I was thinking about one) as I'm about to build a new PC and the current AM4 based PC can become a 'lounge' PC. It'll be similar in performance I suspect. That being said the Steam Deck has been one of the delights of the last few years. A bit like the Switch it opened my eyes to portable gaming and using Linux as a mainstream OS for gaming. Although I'm very price sensitive if my current Steam Deck was unavailable for some reason I'd still seriously consider replacing it just because of the form factor.

 

[Grim5]

but but but... it's Valve... the saviours of pc gaming with their 20% developer surcharge.. you will all love the £1200 price point for ps4 hardware and buy it..

all hail the mighty Gabe.. aaaaaahhhhhhhmmmmmmeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnn

30%, Valves store fee is 30% not 20%

 

[SimonRigga]

30%, Valves store fee is 30% not 20%

It may as well be 70% for all the difference it makes to Valve fanboys.. who can do no wrong..

 

[TheVoice]

Are they not wanting to sell anymore? That's ridiculous pricing, what exactly are they wanting to achieve with that?

I was looking to pick up a steam machine as I do need a new PC and thought this would be a good alternative but I think I'll just get a new tower.

I'm not about to sympathise with a massively profitable business, but there's no point to them selling it at a massive loss while the cost of components (and shipping, probably) are going through the roof.

 

[MOOGLEYS]

The first batch of Steam machines were built months ago and would have been built with cheaper component costs. I bet they are not sold cheaper to reflect this though.

 

[SimonRigga]

I'm not about to sympathise with a massively profitable business, but there's no point to them selling it at a massive loss while the cost of components (and shipping, probably) are going through the roof.

Thing is though, Valve make their money through steam game sales, and given the current state of PC gaming, you'd think they would want to do everything they can to prop up their main business even if that means losing a few million on some hardware sales.

But no... they will rinse the poor valve fan boys for as much as they can for second rate hardware. (I expect anyway, although I would love to be proved wrong!)

 

[b0rn2sk8]

It’s not a co sole, just a computer. It isn’t going to be sold at a loss in the hope you buy steam games on it.

There is literally nothing stopping you putting windows on it the day you buy it or buying all your games from the epic games store (lol.).

 

[TheVoice]

Thing is though, Valve make their money through steam game sales, and given the current state of PC gaming, you'd think they would want to do everything they can to prop up their main business even if that means losing a few million on some hardware sales.

But no... they will rinse the poor valve fan boys for as much as they can for second rate hardware. (I expect anyway, although I would love to be proved wrong!)

I can't see the Steam Machine having much impact on their game sales revenue to be honest, not at this early stage in its current form and spec at least. It's mostly going to appeal to people who already have some sort of gaming PC (or maybe just a Steam Deck) and want something for the living room, in which case they're not bringing much in the way of new sales to the platform.

A subsidised Steam Machine would be great and I'd have one, but I think it's only viable when you've got a captive audience like the consoles where you're making money back on games, subscriptions and accessories. Valve don't have the ecosystem for that to work as a strategy; they'd make little money out of me for example, as I tend to buy my games from legitimate retailers like Green Man Gaming etc where they're cheaper and so Valve gets no cut as a result. Plenty of other people will use Loaded, G2A, Eneba etc.

 

[SimonRigga]

It’s not a co sole, just a computer. It isn’t going to be sold at a loss in the hope you buy steam games on it.

There is literally nothing stopping you putting windows on it the day you buy it or buying all your games from the epic games store (lol.).

I can't see the Steam Machine having much impact on their game sales revenue to be honest, not at this early stage in its current form and spec at least. It's mostly going to appeal to people who already have some sort of gaming PC (or maybe just a Steam Deck) and want something for the living room, in which case they're not bringing much in the way of new sales to the platform.

A subsidised Steam Machine would be great and I'd have one, but I think it's only viable when you've got a captive audience like the consoles where you're making money back on games, subscriptions and accessories. Valve don't have the ecosystem for that to work as a strategy; they'd make little money out of me for example, as I tend to buy my games from legitimate retailers like Green Man Gaming etc where they're cheaper and so Valve gets no cut as a result. Plenty of other people will use Loaded, G2A, Eneba etc.

Indeed, so I guess it just won't sell at all..

However on the other side of the argument, it may well keep people buying more games, and possibly different games on steam if you have a "Steam machine" under your tv, people may buy more couch friendly games, instead of buying on console.. shirley that is to Valve's advantage..

I guess we'll never know..

 

[Hotwired]

Thing is though, Valve make their money through steam game sales, and given the current state of PC gaming, you'd think they would want to do everything they can to prop up their main business even if that means losing a few million on some hardware sales.

But no... they will rinse the poor valve fan boys for as much as they can for second rate hardware. (I expect anyway, although I would love to be proved wrong!)

They have never planned to sell the steam machine at subsidised price and right now the normal price of hardware sucks so it will suck. Compare to similar pcs on the day to decide if Valve is making huge stacks or if that's actually what hardware costs.

It exists to demonstrate Steam OS which is the product they'll give away for free as it can bring in money just by being accepted and installed on any existing pc which is a vastly better way to spread it than having to sell a device for every single install.

Valve will have the same concerns as consumers going forward which is that pc gaming is getting crippled. If it all heads off to the cloud their business model will be cooked but they can't magic up hardware while AI outbids everyone, maybe they'll end up forced to be a gaming as a service company.

 

[SimonRigga]

It exists to demonstrate Steam OS which is the product they'll give away for free as it can bring in money just by being accepted and installed on any existing pc which is a vastly better way to spread it than having to sell a device for every single install.

This I 100% agree with, it's all about the OS, but until it gets wider adoption, or even just better recognition as the gamers OS, then they aren't going to win that game.. so why not subsidise a few steam machines to get the steam OS out there and being used, and being proven to be the correct choice for gamers.

Sounds like a no brainer to me, but then i'm not a big corporation, who's sole goal is to make money

 

[TheVoice]

Indeed, so I guess it just won't sell at all..

However on the other side of the argument, it may well keep people buying more games, and possibly different games on steam if you have a "Steam machine" under your tv, people may buy more couch friendly games, instead of buying on console.. shirley that is to Valve's advantage..

I guess we'll never know..

Fair point, and pre-RAM insanity perhaps a small subsidy could have made some sense, but with the RAM and SSD accounting for so much of the cost of the system now I don't think £50 or so makes much difference. People understandably want it to be the price it would have been before AI annihilated the DRAM/NAND market and the moron in the White House decided to start bombing Iran, but it's now going to be hundreds of £/$ more and as we've seen from the console price rises, no manufacturer seems willing to absorb that.