Lmao, your first comment is what I’m arguing against! Incredible dialectic, really.

Who else is buying a PC designed for gaming for non gaming stuff? What other industry is this an optimal build and design for? The last steam machine didn’t sell outside of its intended audience. Why would this one?

Wtf are you talking about!? This conversation started with me saying I hope they sell the console at 499 and I don’t know why they wouldn’t consider selling at a loss for hardware, which would be following a proven strategy used by so many other companies (including themselves!!) trying to break into a market.

I said loss or near loss if you want to be pedantic about it instead of addressing the evidence that they didn’t make money on steam deck hardware in order to increase user base, which was the point of my comment in hopes that they would do the same for the console.

Hey if you wanna interpret Gabe’s quotes of aggressive and painful pricing as something other than a loss or close to a loss as I said in my comment, while ignoring the theoretical cost of building a device like that, and the precedent set by so many other companies trying to break into a market like that, there’s nothing else I can say to get you off “winning” this argument. So yeah, I’m sure you’re right. I’m sure Valve is just banking on a bunch of existing steam users to want to buy a $700–$800 mid range box so they don’t have to move their PC into their living room to game on the couch. Solid business model.

You picked one quote out of both those articles to interpret as your counter to my point? Seems to me this isn’t even an argument. It’s a consensus among anyone that understands the cost of building that device. Amazing that your response to me providing sources is “But the owner didn’t say it explicitly, so it doesn’t count.” Are you 12 years old? Why don’t you provide some sources about how profitable the steam deck was?

https://www.nme.com/news/gaming-news/gabe-newell-says-steam-decks-aggressive-pricing-painful-but-critical-2995253

https://www.indiekings.com/2025/07/why-valve-sells-steam-deck-at-loss.html

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.

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.

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.