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So, Steam is planning to sell these at a loss, but isn’t planning to lock out third party OS? What’s to stop people buying them to use for completely unrelated

So, Steam is planning to sell these at a loss, but isn’t planning to lock out third party OS? What’s to stop people buying them to use for completely unrelated use cases? I guess it depends on how big the loss is… if it is small, it might not be really worth it for most people; but any larger, I wonder how sustainable this will be.

killingtime74 1y ago
Did they say they are selling at a loss?
- TheRoque 1y ago
  I don't think they have, but it's the business model of most consoles, to be able to be very affordable. So since the headline is implying it'll do better than consoles, it's implying it'll be sold at a loss too. But honestly, I find that article BS.
- Normal_gaussian 1y ago
  Valve haven't said that, but the article randomly claims it.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
protimewaster 1y ago
I think the explanation is that people love Valve beyond reason, so a vast majority will just use Steam on it. Plus, Steam is bordering on a monopoly for PC gaming anyway, so, even if they install another OS, a user is probably going to end up on Steam.
TheRoque 1y ago
If that's what happens, then I'm buying one of these right away for sure. I mean, I use steam a lot, but I certainly won't be locked in their "SteamOS". Maybe they are betting that most users will be too lazy to change the defaults and stick to SteamOS (which might very well be the case, and they have a hint of this thanks to the data they have on the Steam Deck)
opan 1y ago
You can install Windows (or Bazzite, or whatever else) on a Steam Deck as well.
raincole 1y ago
> Steam is planning to sell these at a loss Just a random blog's guess. > What’s to stop people buying them to use for completely unrelated use cases? Nothing. But it doesn't mean that Valve doesn't benefit from it. Valve wants the whole gaming scheme to shift toward SteamOS. Like Google wants the whole web browsing to shift to Chrome, even you can use Chrome for stuff unrelated to Google.
ethmarks 1y ago
What non-gaming use cases do you imagine people might use these for? For normal computer use (reading email, watching videos, doing spreadsheets), there are much cheaper and better options available. If somebody wanted a Steam Machine specifically, it'd be for the GPU. If you needed a lot of GPU compute (for AI or blockchain or whatever), it'd be cheaper to buy or rent a dedicated server with Nvidia H100s rather than buying dozens of Steam Machines. So the only potential use cases are those that have a significant but not too significant GPU requirement. The only ones I can think of are gaming (which is the intended use case), video editing, and 3D rendering. Video editing is less of a concern because neither Adobe Premier nor Final Cut Pro will run on Linux (to my knowledge), so you might as well buy a Mac that runs both of those very efficiently and has decent hardware. So we're left with 3D rendering. If people want to use Steam Machines to render things in Blender, I say "let them", and I assume that Valve does too.
- bsder 1y ago
  > What non-gaming use cases do you imagine people might use these for? Media box under your TV? Right now I don't have a lot of options that also don't inundate me with ads. Sure, I can build one, but if Valve can put this out at a price that makes me go "Nah. Not worth building it myself." that's a win.
  - ethmarks 1y ago
    Couldn't you use a Raspberry Pi or a mini PC for this?
    - bsder 1y ago
      Sure? But RPi's are anemic and not cheap while refurb mini PC's are $400. So, there's quite a bit of pricing room.
      - lotyrin 1y ago
        I think the mini PCs they're talking about are more likely to be N100 systems or similar that are sub 100 dollars new. Significantly less anemic, and their hardware media decode (which is well supported by software) is more than sufficient for realtime 4k playback.
xgulfie 1y ago
What's stopping someone from using a steam deck for running emulators, SuperTuxKart, and pirated games? This isn't their first rodeo
- SchemaLoad 1y ago
  I doubt the steam deck is sold at a loss.
micromacrofoot 1y ago
no modern console is sold at a loss this is silly speculation

killingtime74 1y ago

Did they say they are selling at a loss?

TheRoque 1y ago
I don't think they have, but it's the business model of most consoles, to be able to be very affordable. So since the headline is implying it'll do better than consoles, it's implying it'll be sold at a loss too. But honestly, I find that article BS.
Normal_gaussian 1y ago
Valve haven't said that, but the article randomly claims it.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

protimewaster 1y ago

I think the explanation is that people love Valve beyond reason, so a vast majority will just use Steam on it. Plus, Steam is bordering on a monopoly for PC gaming anyway, so, even if they install another OS, a user is probably going to end up on Steam.

TheRoque 1y ago

If that's what happens, then I'm buying one of these right away for sure. I mean, I use steam a lot, but I certainly won't be locked in their "SteamOS". Maybe they are betting that most users will be too lazy to change the defaults and stick to SteamOS (which might very well be the case, and they have a hint of this thanks to the data they have on the Steam Deck)

opan 1y ago

You can install Windows (or Bazzite, or whatever else) on a Steam Deck as well.

raincole 1y ago

> Steam is planning to sell these at a loss Just a random blog's guess. > What’s to stop people buying them to use for completely unrelated use cases? Nothing. But it doesn't mean that Valve doesn't benefit from it. Valve wants the whole gaming scheme to shift toward SteamOS. Like Google wants the whole web browsing to shift to Chrome, even you can use Chrome for stuff unrelated to Google.

ethmarks 1y ago

What non-gaming use cases do you imagine people might use these for? For normal computer use (reading email, watching videos, doing spreadsheets), there are much cheaper and better options available. If somebody wanted a Steam Machine specifically, it'd be for the GPU. If you needed a lot of GPU compute (for AI or blockchain or whatever), it'd be cheaper to buy or rent a dedicated server with Nvidia H100s rather than buying dozens of Steam Machines. So the only potential use cases are those that have a significant but not too significant GPU requirement. The only ones I can think of are gaming (which is the intended use case), video editing, and 3D rendering. Video editing is less of a concern because neither Adobe Premier nor Final Cut Pro will run on Linux (to my knowledge), so you might as well buy a Mac that runs both of those very efficiently and has decent hardware. So we're left with 3D rendering. If people want to use Steam Machines to render things in Blender, I say "let them", and I assume that Valve does too.

bsder 1y ago
> What non-gaming use cases do you imagine people might use these for? Media box under your TV? Right now I don't have a lot of options that also don't inundate me with ads. Sure, I can build one, but if Valve can put this out at a price that makes me go "Nah. Not worth building it myself." that's a win.
- ethmarks 1y ago
  Couldn't you use a Raspberry Pi or a mini PC for this?
  - bsder 1y ago
    Sure? But RPi's are anemic and not cheap while refurb mini PC's are $400. So, there's quite a bit of pricing room.
    - lotyrin 1y ago
      I think the mini PCs they're talking about are more likely to be N100 systems or similar that are sub 100 dollars new. Significantly less anemic, and their hardware media decode (which is well supported by software) is more than sufficient for realtime 4k playback.

xgulfie 1y ago

What's stopping someone from using a steam deck for running emulators, SuperTuxKart, and pirated games? This isn't their first rodeo

SchemaLoad 1y ago
I doubt the steam deck is sold at a loss.

micromacrofoot 1y ago

no modern console is sold at a loss this is silly speculation