Probably slightly more than that, but it’s worth considering the long-term costs. Steam does not have a monthly subscription (minimum $160/yr with PS), they often have massive price cuts in their seasonal sales, and even many games can be had completely for free. Epic gives them away every week. GOG gives them away on occasion. And if you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber, that includes several games a week as well.
myspecialpurpose@lemmy.ca 10 hours ago
If this thing is $499, I will buy it, as I’ve wanted to get into PC gaming for a while and I will probably spend more in games. If it is more than $499, I will buy a used PS5 and continue to think about building a cool gaming PC and getting into PC gaming.
artyom@piefed.social 10 hours ago
magic_lobster_party@fedia.io 10 hours ago
I think $700-$800 is a more realistic range unfortunately. It depends on how thin margins Valve is willing to accept, but I don’t think they want to sell at a loss like the typical console manufacturer.
myspecialpurpose@lemmy.ca 9 hours ago
I don’t know why they wouldn’t consider selling at a loss if it means bringing a massive user base over to their gaming ecosystem where they take a 30% cut of game sales. 700-800 is probably a good price point for what you get. I’m just not a big enough gamer to justify dropping that kind of money on a setup to try out PC gaming.
missingno@fedia.io 7 hours ago
Console manufacturers sell at a loss because they have to sell the hardware first before they can sell anything else. They know they'll get that money back on software you couldn't have bought without the console.
While I'm sure Valve hopes to bring some new customers to Steam this way, I'll bet that the majority of Steam Machines sold will be to users who are already invested in Steam and have an existing library of games to play. If they take a loss on hardware, they can't be certain they're actually making up for it elsewhere.
It's not practical for the Machine to be a loss leader because it's a supplementary product, not one the rest of their business is dependent on.
myspecialpurpose@lemmy.ca 6 hours ago
They used the same strategy for the steam deck. Valve acknowledged that it was sold at a loss or near loss and it was incredibly successful because it broke into the handheld market. Don’t know why they wouldn’t do the same for this console like system. I’m hoping they do.