They have repeatedly gone on record saying they always underestimated demand for their hardware. They said it for the Deck, for both controllers, and now for the Steam Machine. I wonder how much of that is due to being burned so badly by the original steam machines program and some sort of collective PTSD, or do they genuinely suck so much at marketing that they have no idea that people want real hardware competition in the gaming space. I know that market analysis is the hardest part of marketing. But underestimating demand for a decade straight? something’s is off. It gives me flashbacks to when the Orange Box came out and it was sold out almost immediately to become one of PC game most culturally influential contribution to the internet. Yet they were so slow to order reprints (they were knee deep in rolling out Steam Store). It’s like they have zero confidence on their own products.
They have repeatedly gone on record saying they always underestimated demand for their hardware. They said it for the Deck, for both controllers, and now for the Steam Machine. I wonder how much of that is due to being burned so badly by the original steam machines program and some sort of collective PTSD, or do they genuinely suck so much at marketing that they have no idea that people want real hardware competition in the gaming space. I know that market analysis is the hardest part of marketing. But underestimating demand for a decade straight? something’s is off. It gives me flashbacks to when the Orange Box came out and it was sold out almost immediately to become one of PC game most culturally influential contribution to the internet. Yet they were so slow to order reprints (they were knee deep in rolling out Steam Store). It’s like they have zero confidence on their own products.