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I suspect there is quite a bit of turmoil inside the walls of Valve right now due to a series of large, failed bets that will eventually threaten their cash-cow

I suspect there is quite a bit of turmoil inside the walls of Valve right now due to a series of large, failed bets that will eventually threaten their cash-cow platform. > Steam controller/Steam Link Huge flop. These are being practically given away now as Valve looks to get rid of their excess inventory. This being hardware, it had to be an expensive venture that failed to penetrate the living room. > Steam machines Another stinker, though Valve was able to successfully offload most of the risk onto OEMs with this one. Opportunity cost still bites. > VR I commend Valve for putting all their chips in on this, but it looks like the VR industry had yet another cold start. This will go down as an almost total loss. All the while Valve has been neglecting game development which, while admittedly much more expensive and less rewarding than running a sales platform, ensures that there's a sufficient amount of first party titles to keep users on Steam. With the advent of Fortnite and competing platforms from other triple-A studios, it's not so farfetched to imagine a complete fracturing of the games platform market over the next 5-10 years. Valve needs a return-to-roots moment to prevent this from happening

KevanM 8y ago
They have had some huge successes though, Counter-Strike and Dota 2 which provide ongoing incoming alongside the store. And they are releasing a DOTA 2 card game this year?
zeroname 8y ago
A failed big-budget video game title would be far more expensive than these little hardware experiments. Steam machines weren't expensive either, OEM PC costs are nothing compared to a "real" console rollout, with custom hardware contracts, permanent production lines and a whole advertising campaign.
- cloakandswagger 8y ago
  Yes I said as much in my comment. There is still opportunity cost to all of these experiments which is especially impactful to a company as small as Valve.
jbob2000 8y ago
> Steam controller/Steam Link > Huge flop Totally agree! I bought a steam controller and it gathers dust. They didn't pair the release of the controller with a killer game, there's nothing pushing me to use this over my mouse and keyboard. My friend has a steam link and it needs a lot of polish, some games don't work and it crashes a lot. > VR Another flop because of no killer game. A couple indie studios put out some quick hacks you might call video games, but other than that.. yeah total flop. I do see VR booths at places new age arcades like Dave & Busters, but I doubt there's enough of them to prop up the whole industry. Fortnite is one more nail in the coffin for them. Video games are a zero sum game - I can only play one game at a time and there are only so many hours in the day for me to play. If I'm playing Fortnite, then I'm not playing Dota 2.
lightbyte 8y ago
>Huge flop. These are being practically given away now as Valve looks to get rid of their excess inventory. This being hardware, it had to be an expensive venture that failed to penetrate the living room. Was the steam link really a huge flop? That's sad, I absolutely love mine. It's probably one of the best purchases I've ever made cost-to-value wise.
- detaro 8y ago
  In the recent sales they sold the Link for $5, so unless there's something that justifies putting them out as a loss leader fire sale seems to be it.
- r_smart 8y ago
  I love mine too, and use it all the time, but I got it from a friend who bought a game that bundled the steam link for like $1 or something. No way they're doing anything other than trying to offload :(

KevanM 8y ago

They have had some huge successes though, Counter-Strike and Dota 2 which provide ongoing incoming alongside the store. And they are releasing a DOTA 2 card game this year?

zeroname 8y ago

A failed big-budget video game title would be far more expensive than these little hardware experiments. Steam machines weren't expensive either, OEM PC costs are nothing compared to a "real" console rollout, with custom hardware contracts, permanent production lines and a whole advertising campaign.

cloakandswagger 8y ago
Yes I said as much in my comment. There is still opportunity cost to all of these experiments which is especially impactful to a company as small as Valve.

jbob2000 8y ago

> Steam controller/Steam Link > Huge flop Totally agree! I bought a steam controller and it gathers dust. They didn't pair the release of the controller with a killer game, there's nothing pushing me to use this over my mouse and keyboard. My friend has a steam link and it needs a lot of polish, some games don't work and it crashes a lot. > VR Another flop because of no killer game. A couple indie studios put out some quick hacks you might call video games, but other than that.. yeah total flop. I do see VR booths at places new age arcades like Dave & Busters, but I doubt there's enough of them to prop up the whole industry. Fortnite is one more nail in the coffin for them. Video games are a zero sum game - I can only play one game at a time and there are only so many hours in the day for me to play. If I'm playing Fortnite, then I'm not playing Dota 2.

lightbyte 8y ago

>Huge flop. These are being practically given away now as Valve looks to get rid of their excess inventory. This being hardware, it had to be an expensive venture that failed to penetrate the living room. Was the steam link really a huge flop? That's sad, I absolutely love mine. It's probably one of the best purchases I've ever made cost-to-value wise.

detaro 8y ago
In the recent sales they sold the Link for $5, so unless there's something that justifies putting them out as a loss leader fire sale seems to be it.
r_smart 8y ago
I love mine too, and use it all the time, but I got it from a friend who bought a game that bundled the steam link for like $1 or something. No way they're doing anything other than trying to offload :(