this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2026
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With the current hardware prices there isn't much profit to gain here.
The main difference to other consoles is that they don't sell at a loss to keep you in their ecosystem like PlayStation and Nintendo do. Valve could afford the cheap prices of the steam deck since its a bit tricky to use as a normal PC, but the steam machine is literally just a PC, selling it at a loss would be stupid for them.
Not particularly. Steam gets 30% back on all game sales, so if they can make sure the steam machine gets only to people with established steam accounts, then they're probably coming out ahead.
That's... pretty much my point.
For the steam deck where 99% of people will use it with steam, selling at a loss is acceptable, so they do it.
The steam machine is just a pc, so they can't make sure that people use steam, hence the normal market price.
I'm pretty sure the person you're responding to is referring to the fact that in order to buy the steam machine you have to have a steam account in good standing of a certain age. I guess that does not necessarily ensure that the end user will be a big gamer, but it certainly helps.
I'm not suggesting it makes sense to sell it a loss, just providing that information in case people were not aware.
My point is that while it's a pc, it's more positioned to be a console. If steam limited sales to one per customer and only for established steam accounts for the first runs (like they are already beginning to do for the steam deck and controllers), then they could force it to be more of a console. I do think it'll still be a bad launch, as the goal of the steam machine clearly is to put them in Xbox territory for regular consumers, and the current price and any other changes probably won't help that for new customers.
Valve is a for profit company, they sell their products at the highest price the can get away with.