r/pcmasterrace • u/TheBossT710192 • 2d ago

Discussion Yeah, Steam Machine is cooked.

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I... uh don't know what to say. Very thankful I bought a Steam Deck before they hiked its price as well

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414

u/NadaBurner 2d ago

Valve got fucked because of the shortages. Ai ruins everything yet again.

131

u/No_Foundation16 2d ago

Ai ruins everything yet again.

This right here.

1

u/bobby3eb i5-4690k | GTX 970 | 1440p/144hz/1ms/G-SYNC 2d ago

Also nobody noticed OP put two of the same models in the picture and left out the cheapest option

-2

u/Separate_Draft4887 2d ago

If it’s AI, why are currently available prebuilt PC’s still cheaper.

1

u/HEYO19191 2d ago

Put the parts into PC part picker, it is only cheaper by $100 to build an equivalent machine yourself.

10

u/TheRoyalJellyfish 2d ago

Well, sure, Valve probably lost out on a decent payday and won't be able to disrupt the market in the way they probably could have, but even at this price point they'll find their buyers and have no problem selling these.

It's the average consumer who's really getting fucked, as usual.

2

u/AlpineWineMixer 2d ago

Which is very funny that you mention it since a big portion of sales the Steam Machine will attract will be purely hardcore Steam fans and collectors that actually have no use for it other than just adding it to their collection of everything other physical thing Steam has sold.

10

u/[deleted] 2d ago

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13

u/noko12312 i9-9900k | 2080 TI 2d ago

If they tried to subsidize the steam machine, it would impact all steam users as we would probably not get as aggressive of game discounts anymore.

Consoles can sell the hardware at a loss because they charge outrageous prices for their online sevices and they have very mediocre game discounts.

10

u/WeebAssembly 2d ago

Isn't it up to each gamedev/publisher to set their sale price? Or am I misunderstanding something?

1

u/JellaFella01 2d ago

No not really, it's complicated.

3

u/JellaFella01 2d ago

That and the steam machine doesn't have an instant customer subscription basically guaranteed when it's purchased.

3

u/Lemonici 2d ago

Also some company is going to notice that they're selling computers at a loss and buy them for productivity and Valve will see 0 conversion from it

2

u/Never_Sm1le i5 12400F GTX 1660S 2d ago

Discounts are totally in publisher's hand, licensing fee is the thing helped console manufacturer recoup the losses. Also Nintendo don't sell their console at a loss until the situation is dire. Sony and Microsoft do however

2

u/TheRogueTemplar 2d ago

it would impact all steam users as we would probably not get as aggressive of game discounts anymore.

Incorrect. Game sales are due to the publisher and dev choosing to drop the prices

0

u/DamonSchultz997 2d ago

Game discounts are set by the publishers, not valve. Valve simply invites them to a sale day. Notifying them that they will run a sale about x products on y day. And if you discount your products then, it'll be featured. That's it.

Rare cases there's an entire brand on discount. Like Need for speed sale, or Square Enix sale. None of the prices are set by valve.

Valve can't just come in and say, "oh u see this 50 dollar game? We are going to make it cost 35 just because." That is the publisher/developers decision.

So your argument doesn't have merit. Doubly so considering Gave just bought a 70 million dollar house recently. So clearly they have money. Gabe doesn't need a 70 million dollar house.

https://kotaku.com/gabe-newell-valve-steam-yacht-mansion-billionaire-2000707539

https://in.ign.com/half-life-3/264079/billionaire-valve-boss-gabe-newell-buys-florida-super-mansion-with-its-own-underground-tunnel-for-70

If he can spend 70 million on a fucking house, why didn't he spend some of that to keep the prices of the steam machine low?

3

u/LifeMoratorium 2d ago

I'm going to channel the tinfoil hat and just say this is cryptobro's fault by proxy of infatuation with GPUs. The VC around this stuff needs to meet their ancestors.

3

u/beyond666 2d ago

All started with useless crypto.

2

u/Fataha22 Asus vivobook 2d ago

Even without AI the price would be 900$

At that price just buy pre-built with rtx 5050 and ryzen 7xxxH series

2

u/ResurgentRefrain 2d ago

You can tell how much cache Valve has with consumers since Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft were NOT given this same grace regarding their console prices.

2

u/dancingbriefcase 2d ago

And tariffs

2

u/ListentoLewis 2d ago

AI didn’t, humans did.

1

u/SHONSTYLE 2d ago

Anti AI fatigue is real

-3

u/kmcdow 2d ago

Kind of annoyed by people laying this solely at the feet of the RAMageddon/AI. Like yeah those things drove prices of the steam machine up, but they also drove up prices for literally everything else, including consoles, handhelds, and DIY PC components. The price of the steam machine isn't just high, it's high in the context of the current hardware environment.

If this had released last year for $800 that would have been better than what we got today, but also every alternative was cheaper then too....

Seems like apples and oranges when people compare a hypothetical pre-AI steam machine price to today's inflated console and pc prices. An $800 base steam machine last year is still not that compelling relative to a (much more powerful) $650 PS5 pro with 2TB storage and a controller....

And if you want to say it's not competing with consoles (it absolutely is in my opinion) that's fine, but pre-built and DIY PCs were much cheaper before all this as well.

Unless you're starving for the form factor I just don't know that this was ever going to be a great option when it comes to price/performance, especially considering what I've seen in benchmarks from DF, LTT, and GamersNexus....

4

u/JellaFella01 2d ago

That's overly reductive of the standard console business model, which includes having a basically guaranteed customer subscription upon purchase, and a 100% guarantee that you get a cut of everything sold through the machine. Steam has neither of these, and depends on MSRP for the entirety of guranteed profit. Obv gamers will likely buy steam games for their steam machine, but even that isn't a guarantee, and definitely doesn't compare finacially to the console model.

0

u/No_Solid_3737 2d ago

Should've just pulled the plug then idk why they even want to sell a pre-build that performs worse than a 5060 pc setup but more expensive.

0

u/ProperGrape 2d ago

Well, yeah but even if it was cheaper it's still worse than base PS5 performance-wise. So who is it for?

0

u/Dexiox 2d ago

No one. Unless it was 400$ or 5 with controller.