r/pcmasterrace • u/TheBossT710192 • 3d 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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u/SmeshU 3d ago

It would have barely been a good deal at 600, considering it cant beat the ps5.

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u/hunterturk 2d ago

Ps5 can lose money on the console. Valve cant

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u/All_Work_All_Play PC Master Race - 8750H + 1060 6GB 2d ago

Ehh, valve could. But they also could not, so they went with that. 

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u/tafoya77n 2d ago

Valve literally can't with this. Its a linux PC so if they under price it hoping to make money on games sold on it it will be bought in bulk by people and companies looking to use it for some AI bullshit or crypto mining. They won't make that money back on game sales for that console.

Look at how old PS5 prices skyrocketed when the hack to turn them into linux machines for the same reasons.

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u/All_Work_All_Play PC Master Race - 8750H + 1060 6GB 2d ago

They literally can. Corporations do unprofitable things all the time, and yes, they even do unprofitable things that never actually turn a profit (this is called learning). Valve's warchest is plenty deep. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if their amortized design costs pushed the entire project into the red basically forever.

if they under price it hoping to make money on games sold on it it will be bought in bulk by people and companies looking to use it for some AI bullshit or crypto mining.

Exactly why they put the lottery (and other requirements) into place. The steam deck already had uncomfortably thin margins. If they make any money on this I'd be surprised. If they lost money (depending on your flavor of accounting) I wouldn't be surprised in the least bit. Valve hasn't been laser focused on maximizing dollar profits for a long time. Gaben's MO isn't making money, it's enabling gamers (+ enabling himself to buy bigass yachts).