The problem is that it makes less sense for them to sell at a loss than for example Xbox or Sony. It's just a capable PC, corporations could buy hundreds or thousands and they wouldn't make a cent off of game sales.

799 and 999 are my best guesses for the two versions

It's not a console, it's a general purpose PC

Uh the same could be said for Sony, Xbox and to a greater extent Nintendo but they'd rather make oodles of noodles money at every interaction.

Rumors is that the original Zen CPU SoC in the Steam Deck was also the leftovers from another canceled project by "a major OEM", so it's plausible. Sounds like Microsoft planned a handheld Xbox much earlier, which years after the Deck turned into the ROG collaboration, could have been related

MSFT? Microsoft?

Get ready to be horribly dissapointed...

If they sell it only through Steam as they do with the Steam Deck, companies wouldn't really be able to buy them in bulk.

I heard at one point in time the fastest super computer in the world was a cluster of 900 ps3. It was cheaper then buying a single computer and in the beginning of the ps3 era you could easily format and run Linux on them.

I saw in a LTT video that they already claimed they will not be selling this at a loss because they want their hardware division to be self-sustaining.

I don't think companies would be able to buy them in bulk, at least not directly.

Valve sells direct to consumer, no retail in the middle, they have their own online storefront (duh).

They're not going to do a B2B mass order.

If a business wanted to try and stockpile them, for whatever reason, to turn into their own thing... or, to try to cause a price panic / supply shortage...

... they'd have to use/create basically a scalper network of essentially unaffiliated people.

Yeah, on announcement day people were adamant about it costing less than consoles, but one look at the specs and you'd know there's no way of that happening.

I'd be shocked if it's under $600

They did say that it's a mini PC, not a console

I'm sure it will be able to, but it will come pre-installed with steamOS (arch btw).

It may act on the whole market, but it doesn't have the same impact on every OEM.

It's a bigger issue for Valve than the console competition, who have established supply chains potentially with fixed prices for certain terms or at least more significant volume discounts, and proprietary compatibility hurdles binding their customers, so they can sell hardware at a loss if they want to.

If Valve sells the computers at a loss they run the risk of people buying them for other uses, without generating corresponding Steam profits.

Which is why all these analyses are stupid. We don't need to do anything anywhere near as complicated as looking to market interactions and equivalent cost pricing. Because it's obvious that at $1,000 it'll flop and presumably valve know that.

I like the theory that they got the CPU and GPU at bargain basement prices because it was left over from some previously scrapped project of Microsoft or something. That would explain why it's such a weird architecture.

I think the RAM just uses laptop sticks, so it is upgradable edit: https://www.digitalfoundry.net/features/hands-on-with-steam-machine-valves-new-pcconsole-hybrid

Speaking of upgradability, I wonder if an egpu could be connected to that usbc port.

Could you really build something better for less? Not to mention all that plus OS install and stuff is already done so most people will prefer that I think.

For me it’s either this or Framework Desktop, I’ve got the money, just waiting for the email from Valve telling the final price.

Steam Machine is better for gaming, which is nice

But Framework can do Mac levels of AI work, which is also nice, it’s also not completely useless for games.

I guess if you have a stationary computer that fills your gaming needs you really aren't the target group regardless of the price.

Displayport to HDMI 2.1 adapter?

Regardless, fuck HDMI

It has display port as well, for the picky