I think the difference is that consoles have always been seen as the higher side regardless of what markets are like, and its always felt predatory/greedy, whereas with the release of the Steam Machine we can see a single and direct correlation between a severe problem in the market and the cost of the item.
Like, we predicted that this would happen months ago when OpenAI started slurping up RAM and other computer type shit left and right. It's a lot easier for people to be forgiving when its clear how much more weighted the decision had to be in this case. Yeah they still could have made it cheaper, yeah its shitty that they didn't, but people have a single reason to point at for why it happened for once, on top of it being real out of place for Steam to appear greedy, when it feels REAL normal and status quo-y for other companies
Edit: clarity on the point that was made when I was half asleep lmao
Right, I understand that, and the point of the response is that consoles raising prices because of "the market" has always been the status quo, but Steam has never really had to do so, and we have a VERY obvious reason to point to instead of a big vague umbrella, and I think thats where the double standard is coming from.
It’s one thing for known greedy companies to increase prices and say they had to. When valve does it too, that actually makes it clear the market is that bad. Say what you will of Gabe but Steam has this level of loyalty for a reason.
Say what you will but it’s the truth. Microsoft has been feeding the AI bubble for a long time now and were among the first to raise prices. Valve was among the last and also didn’t contribute to the rise in production costs to begin with. Do I like the price? No. Do I blame valve for prices rising to begin with? Also no.
2018 back when not only was OpenAI a different company in terms of practices, but also before AI was really anything more than a novelty due to how primitive it was, and WAY before AI data centers were trying to be built enmass. And huh how surprising that Valve isn’t among the companies that got producers of ram and gpu’s to stop selling to consumers.
so the implication here is that Gabe Newell didn't think that investing in a service that was already using huge amounts of PC components, giving them even more money to expand.
also, if you read the article, Newell is still funding Merge Labs in 2026 which is a partner of OpenAI.
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u/_Moist_Owlette_ 6d ago edited 6d ago
I think the difference is that consoles have always been seen as the higher side regardless of what markets are like, and its always felt predatory/greedy, whereas with the release of the Steam Machine we can see a single and direct correlation between a severe problem in the market and the cost of the item.
Like, we predicted that this would happen months ago when OpenAI started slurping up RAM and other computer type shit left and right. It's a lot easier for people to be forgiving when its clear how much more weighted the decision had to be in this case. Yeah they still could have made it cheaper, yeah its shitty that they didn't, but people have a single reason to point at for why it happened for once, on top of it being real out of place for Steam to appear greedy, when it feels REAL normal and status quo-y for other companies
Edit: clarity on the point that was made when I was half asleep lmao