Valve have put up an official explainer on why we haven't gotten released dates or pricing for the new Steam Hardware like the Steam Machine and Steam Frame.
  • CerebralHawks@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    19·
    7 hours ago

    I think most of us understand that the parts market (RAM and SSD at least but also GPU) is so volatile that, for a machine they don’t expect great numbers on and they aren’t selling as a loss leader (like game consoles are), they can’t name a price because they don’t know. Committing to one price now almost certainly means a “price rise” at launch or selling at a loss, neither of which they want.

    Personally I’m expecting $999. I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m a little off, by $200 — in either direction. This will not be “affordable,” but they’re expecting their fans to come out and support them.

  • alessandro@lemmy.caOPEnglish
    13·
    7 hours ago

    Clever idea would be to give to option to sell it without RAM and SSD (as option, you can still buy the whole package).

    They need an open platform to soar, who cares if RAM and SSD comes from second hand market? Steam is a store, they could even lead the second hand market for the (key) accessory components!

    • Railcar8095@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      4 hours ago

      As a cheaper option? Maybe. But that’s means the SteamBox certified might not be true (8 gigs of ram instead of original 16).

      Also, while it might have reparability I’m mind, the fact it has to be opened in the first day requires more design effort

    • popcar2@piefed.caEnglish
      7·
      5 hours ago

      I feel like that goes against their whole message with Steam hardware though. The Steam Machine is advertised as a plug-and-play console alternative that needs zero effort on the user’s part, if they sell versions of it without components it would quickly start gaining notoriety for being for tinkerer’s and linux nerds instead of the average person.

    • jeeva@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      7 hours ago

      Ooh, I’d assumed the RAM would be soldered/integrated with the SOC, but looking at the FAQ you’re completely right! That would be a neat option…

  • CallMeAnAI@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    7 hours ago

    Valve is going to try and sell you an $850 6 year old outdated console so you stop blowing Microsoft and start blowing Valve 🤣

    • AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@piefed.socialEnglish
      3·
      5 hours ago

      My 10 years old computer is already giving me signs of failure. If in the next months it dies, do you really think I’m gonna find 16gb ram at decent prices? Or a recent graphic cards under 200€? I’ll have to add one new motherboard too because mine being old means it won’t support much of what I’ll have to install.

      As of today, if I want to keep the budget of my pc under a reasonable price, I’ll have to settle with something that probably won’t be able to output the last battlefield at 4k120fps.

      But you know what? That’s fine, because I’m confident enough with the size of my dick not to need a computer that lets me brag about dumb numbers.

      • mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        2 minutes ago

        You don’t have to update all the parts at the same time. Sure, if your motherboard/cpu/ram fails you’ll likely need to replace all 3, but your current graphics card, PSU, case, etc should still be fine.

        Plus, if you’re going from a 10 year old rig you could buy used DDR4 era parts on EBay or Facebook to save money and it’d still be an upgrade

    • jeeva@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      7 hours ago

      When did they do this before, to make it a classic Valve move?

      I don’t remember any of their other products being affected by global supply chain issues before.