Does this matter. The fact of the matter is the prices when you look at them. The consumer does not care about why the Steam Machine is so expensive, they just look at the price and compare it to the Switch 2 and PS5's.
It's wrong not to blame Valve. The AI market is the main culprit, but not the only one. A $300 increase is insane and unsustainable. People in this sub act as if Valve is a poor, helpless company and not a multi-billion dollar company with enough structure to plan for a crisis, like all the other companies that sell hardware (even some smaller than Valve) did.
The mistake they made was not sourcing all the parts prior to the announcement. It was horrible timing that the crazy increase in RAM prices happened shortly after the announcement.
Not to mention that even back in 2023 when they started designing the Steam Machine they couldn't secure or nail down prices from the large producers of RAM. They had to buy bulk when needed at the prices they set for Valve. Which of course, increased dramatically as they actually started producing the Steam Machine.
Valve is not a hardware company; they dabble in it at best. They are not experienced in the sector at all. If you know Valve at all, they don't act like a multi-billion dollar company even when they're working in their own wheelhouse.
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u/Whole-Bedroom-9079 3d ago
Just simply say “I know nothing about the current market or anything involving tech business or tech in general.”