Article discusses the effect of rising hardware prices on the deck.
Some highlights:
How much worse has the pricing situation gotten for Valve since November? Superdata Research founder and SuperJoost newsletter author Joost van Dreunen suggested that the 512GB Steam Machine model would probably run $50 to $75 more than he expected when the Steam Machine was announced, and to expect a price “potentially $100+ above target” for the high-end 2TB model. That would mean a $599 to $629 price at the low-end and $849 to $899 for the high-end model, in his estimation.
Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter agreed that, even with the additional component costs, Valve would likely “try to get it out at $599 or so for the 512GB version,” A starting price higher than that would mean “abysmal” sales, he added. “I think $700 is a death sentence and $1,000 is unsellable.”
I’d recommend reading the article though, it has a lot more of value than just those quotes. It goes on to talk about how the price increases will likely hurt valve more than traditional console makers, and how these increases will affect sales.
Michael Pachter is, was, and always will be a complete idiot. Back in the PS2 era he stated that it was no big deal if Sony sold out in North America, they could just move units over from Europe… ignoring the fact that both the video and electricity standards don’t match.
$700 isn’t a “death sentence”, know how we know this?
ROG Xbox Ally X - $1000
PS5 Pro - $750
Xbox Series X - $650
ROG Xbox Ally - $600
PS5 - $550
Steam Deck - $550
Xbox Series S - $450If Valve REALLY wanted to break people’s brains, they would release a “Supply your own RAM and storage” version for $399.
Honestly, if they make it with upgradable RAM, M2 SSD and GPU you’re essentially buying 1 and getting gen 2 and 3 for 50% off.
Michael Pachter being comically wrong and out of touch was a running joke at Ars Technica and gamesindustry.biz back in the day. He’s the Jim Cramer of industry analysts.
A an 8GB RX 7600 is around $300. Add everything else and $700 sounds about right. May not sell high volumes but there’s got to be dozens of manufacturers making minipcs. It’s still a full on computer. It’s be a good value workstation. My gaming PC is my photo and video editor
Yeah… $700 sounds totally reasonable to me. Do I wish it were cheaper? Sure! I would love for it to be accessible to more people.
But $700 seems very reasonable for the hardware being offered.
I really don’t understand the hand-wringing about the cost. I see comments all the time about how it’s “DOA” at some price or another and it strikes me as someone projecting their own preferences and values, including the “analyst” quoted in the article.
As an outside observer you don’t know a) Valve’s goals; b) almost anyone else’s preferences and values.
I say this as someone who enjoys gaming, won’t ever buy a console and won’t ever build a gaming rig. This product is perfect for me and I’d have to feel like Valve were purposely screwing me to not buy it. I may be a minority but I can’t be alone.
We expected it to be more than that, actually. If it’s $700, that’s pretty good. It’s not a Switch. It’s a prebuilt gaming PC in a tiny form factor. Building a gaming PC today with the same horsepower would probably set you back a lot more than that, and you’ll also have a giant tower taking up space.
It’s not for me, but I can think of at least 3 people in my family who would get a lot of value out of it at that price point. No PC-building headaches, no researching every bit of hardware and comparing prices and performance, no tedious planning of the cooling layout, no thermal paste, no separate warranties and RMA headaches for every individual component, no Windows bullshit, not needing an entire corner of the room just for the tower, perfect for the living room, driver and software updates that apply to and work for every customer, I could go on. I don’t see any downside for the average gamer. Sure, if you’re an FPS penny pincher who simply has to OC and have the best of the best and latest hardware, it’ll not appeal to you. But that’s a minority of gamers.
$700 is a dream. $1,000 is reasonable in the current climate I guess, but pushing it a little. $1,500 would be unfortunate, but it really depends on what extra value the system comes with from Valve. I wanna know their RMA and warranty plans. If they’re anything north of “Kafkaesque”, which is how it is with virtually every other hardware manufacturer/reseller, the extra money might actually be worth it, for one’s mental health. If they send out a replacement unit before you have to return a defective one, for example, that would be enough to justify a little more cost, but that’s coming from someone with a long and storied history of nightmarish, abusive RMA practices. I’d suck a dog’s dirty dick to not have to go through that shit again.
Yeah.
My instant reaction was “$700? It’d be a miracle if Valve hits that. What’s Ars thinking?”
Yeah at 700 I’d probably buy one once my wife and I have permanent employment. It would make it a great htpc/game console
As long as it’s comparable price or cheaper than a pre-built of similar specs or building a similar build yourself, they’ll be a market for it. There’s always people looking to get into PC gaming and existing PC gamers who want their Steam library in a console form factor.
