During AMD's latest earnings call that covers the fourth quarter and full year of 2025, AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su gave a small update on Valve's Steam Machine.

To be honest, I expected RAM prices would push back the release date. But AMD would know more about than I would.

    • Telorand@reddthat.com
      14·
      5 hours ago

      I have the first generation, and once I learned how to properly use it and set up the pads and gyro, it quickly became one of my favorite controllers of all time.

      I hope this next one will be even better.

    • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyzOPMEnglish
      6·
      5 hours ago

      I’m pretty sure they’re going to wait to release the controller alongside the Steam Machine.

      Unfortunately that would mean that if RAM/etc prices cause a Machine delay, we’ll probably see the controller get delayed as well.

  • eletes@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    18·
    5 hours ago

    Depending on when they inked their contracts, they may have locked in favorable RAM prices last year

  • PonyOfWar@pawb.social
    64·
    7 hours ago

    Best case scenario is that they had already secured a RAM deal when the prices went mad, so they can now offer a good price. Even then, it might still be an issue for later batches though.

        • Telorand@reddthat.com
          3·
          5 hours ago

          Is it upgradeable? I assumed it would be soldered in.

          Maybe we’ll see, “Some soldering required,” instead 😂

          • Soapbox@lemmy.zipEnglish
            4·
            4 hours ago

            They explicitly said it has user upgradeable ram. The graphics card is soldered on though. Its basically gaming laptop hardware.

            • Telorand@reddthat.com
              2·
              3 hours ago

              Cool, I tried to find the info, but obviously didn’t find that detail. It makes sense, all things considered

            • Telorand@reddthat.com
              1·
              3 hours ago

              I dunno. There’s probably plenty of examples where companies soldered RAM instead of installing SODIMM slots, even when they had space. I agree that it makes sense, but sense isn’t always a factor when a company starts crunching the production cost numbers.

          • arudesalad@piefed.caEnglish
            4·
            5 hours ago

            Considering how repairable the steam deck is, I wouldn’t be surprised if it is upgradable

    • Zetta@mander.xyz
      2·
      4 hours ago

      I’m pretty sure they likely did what they did with the steam LCD, which was order an absolutely insane amount of units that they had stock for years. The semi-custom AMD chip they’re using likely needed a minimum order of millions of units.

  • Björn@swg-empire.de
    41·
    7 hours ago

    I don’t think the RAM prices are going to go back down again any time soon. So there wouldn’t be any point in waiting.

    • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world
      1·
      3 hours ago

      But they might be able to make a similarly powered device with older style ram, it would take a significant re-work though, one that would delay release.

      So this basically confirms they didn’t go that route.

      • seang96@spgrn.com
        1·
        60 minutes ago

        Using DDR4 would probably break support for suspend / resume functionality. I remember reading the speed from DDR5 was what allowed it to function so well.

  • Deacon@lemmy.world
    1·
    3 hours ago

    I would really have to sit and have a long hard think about what my price ceiling is for any of the new Steam lineup. I know I have a maximum price I’m willing to pay but I only have a hazy idea of what that might be.

  • Prove_your_argument@piefed.socialEnglish
    7·
    6 hours ago

    Pricing or frig off lahey!

    I have a buddy who wants to play Nioh 3 but has problems spending money. This could be his solution but… not if it’s like $1200+

  • Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works
    6·
    6 hours ago

    As I already have a Playstation 5 for demanding games (and my kids playing Fortnite and Roblox sadly) and a Steam Deck for less demanding games, I really don’t know for sure if I’m gonna get a Steam Machine.

    Its price and the way it integrates with my Steam Deck might be a deciding factor.

    To be honest, I’m quite happy it isn’t out yet as it’s pushing my FOMO away.

    I guess the wise decision would be to buy every game on Playstation physical, sell them and buy them again on Steam Machine 2 instead of getting a Playstation 6. Espace especially because I’m only using the Playstation for racing games (too demanding for the Deck) or exclusives…

    • pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip
      3·
      4 hours ago

      As I already have a Playstation 5 for demanding games (and my kids playing Fortnite and Roblox sadly) and a Steam Deck for less demanding games, I really don’t know for sure if I’m gonna get a Steam Machine.

      That makes sense. I sometimes forget that not everyone shares my deep burning despise for Sony…yet.

      Anyway, it’ll be good to have a better option when the Playstation 6 does whatever bullshit Sony pulls out of their asses next.

  • iamthetot@piefed.caEnglish
    1·
    4 hours ago

    Gabe could afford to eat the price spikes of the components and sell a reasonably priced machine.

    But he won’t.

    • Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      10·
      4 hours ago

      Credit where credit’s due, Valve did that for the Steam Deck’s entry pricing. Although the danger for the Steam Machine would be potential abuse for massive orders (at Valve’s expense) for things like call centers and offices rather than individuals.

      • horse@feddit.org
        1·
        2 hours ago

        People keep saying this, but Valve could easily prevent companies buying up Steam Machines simply by limiting purchases to a X amount per account. If they are worried about people creating burner accounts just to purchase Steam hardware, they could require the accounts to be a certain age or a minimum amount spent on Steam. Not saying they will or should do this, but they could.

    • Eufalconimorph@discuss.tchncs.de
      4·
      3 hours ago

      That’d be anticompetitive and would be used against them in lawsuits. By Epic, who use anticompetitive exclusivity agreements & subsidise giveaways, but aren’t in a dominant market position so it’s totally not hypocritical.

      • iamthetot@piefed.caEnglish
        1·
        3 hours ago

        I can’t tell if this is sarcasm or not (Poe’s Law, and all) so just to be safe I’ll remark that releasing a product at an affordable cost is the opposite of anti competitive.

        • cecilkorik@piefed.caEnglish
          7·
          2 hours ago

          I am not a lawyer, but as far as I know that’s actually incorrect, selling a product below cost is considered predatory dumping, as it means literally nobody can afford to compete with you on anything resembling a level playing field. How is any competitor supposed to release a competing product when Gabe is using his own financial resources for “eating the price spikes”. Unless you have your own financial resources or massive speculative investment, you cannot also “eat the price spikes” so your own products will have to be priced at realistic levels so that it is something that actually earns you some level of profit in order for your business to continue and grow, and thus those products will be far more expensive than Valve’s subsidized product, and thus, you probably won’t sell any unless you have some significant further advantage, which you shouldn’t need to have in order to simply compete with the market leader. That’s a clear barrier to entry, and is the definition of anti-competitive.

          Usually, this would be done to lock the subsidized buyers into a particular ecosystem, or even just to bundle that ecosystem by default (aka illegal bundling, like Microsoft did for years) from which additional profit can later be expected. In Valve’s case, this would be Steam, and it pretty clearly would profit them in the long run, and this strategy also keeping all competitors out by dumping hardware below cost, thus abusing their Steam distribution monopoly to fund a second monopoly on the Steam Machines market to maintain their first monopoly. That’s literally what antitrust laws were designed for. Just because we don’t really effectively enforce them anymore I feel like people have started losing sight of what they mean and what they are supposed to be for and I don’t think we should just normalize that this is how businesses are supposed to operate.

          And that’s why Valve probably won’t do that. (at least I suspect they won’t, based on my view of their history, I have no insider knowledge)

        • Eufalconimorph@discuss.tchncs.de
          1·
          2 hours ago

          Selling products below cost is legally anticompetitive behavior. Anticompetitive behavior is only illegal for monopolists, which Valve aren’t. But they have been accused and sued, part of why those suits haven’t lead to them being declared a monopoly is because they don’t engage in enough anticompetitive practices. So adding anticompetitive practices would be extremely risky for Valve.