They aren’t going to do that for one very good reason: it’s a PC. And unlike the Steam Deck it’s actually in a PC form factor.
If they sold the Steam Machine at a loss, what’s to stop companies from buying a bunch of them to use as workstations? Those units wouldn’t be bringing any game sales to Valve, so they’d have no way to recoup costs.
Its still a valid concern when companies are buying up 500$ Mac minis to use as AI chat bots. If the steam machine becomes the cheapest way to do a specific business thing that’s common enough, then they would get purchased. I agree that they won’t be able to subsidize them with an expectation of recouping from steam digital sales.
They aren’t going to do that for one very good reason: it’s a PC. And unlike the Steam Deck it’s actually in a PC form factor.
If they sold the Steam Machine at a loss, what’s to stop companies from buying a bunch of them to use as workstations? Those units wouldn’t be bringing any game sales to Valve, so they’d have no way to recoup costs.
It’s like you only read the first half of my comment.
Its still a valid concern when companies are buying up 500$ Mac minis to use as AI chat bots. If the steam machine becomes the cheapest way to do a specific business thing that’s common enough, then they would get purchased. I agree that they won’t be able to subsidize them with an expectation of recouping from steam digital sales.