this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2025
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Can everyone please stop claiming and speculating that Valve's new hardware will be loss leaders? If you watch LTT and Gamers Nexus's first videos on the announcement, they actually spoke with Valve's engineers. And the Valve representatives already said that the new hardware WILL NOT BE LOSS LEADERS.

There isn't even evidence that the Steam Deck was a loss leader. All GabeN said was that the lowest cost launch model was priced "painfully", which doesn't necessarily mean it was sold at a loss, it could easily have been sold at a very tight margin.

And no, low margins does not meet the definition of a loss leader. A loss leader is a product sold below cost, in that every unit sold actually costs the seller money.

I get the desire to speculate on new hardware. It's fun and it helps pass the time until we hear more info from Valve. But there's limits to what is reasonable. Valve has already stated that the new hardware won't be loss leaders, so hoping and/or claiming they are isn't reasonable.

Sorry for the rant, but all of the comments that seem to have only skimmed headlines are quickly getting to me

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[–] Acidbath@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

>.> what have I done

[–] colonthree@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 14 hours ago

Im not gonna make any statements but I think this video might have some credibility. It comes from the person who gave the early heads up for the steam hardware launch :3

https://youtu.be/sJI3qTb2ze8

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 64 points 1 day ago (22 children)

It can't be a loss leader.

The steam machine is, hardware-wise, just a regular Mini-PC. Valve even lets you put whatever OS you want on there. So if this was a loss leader, that would mean that non-gamers and even small businesses would buy these, would install Windows on them and use them as office PCs, with Steam probably not even installed on the PC.

With the Steam Deck, the form factor made it impractical or at least really weird to use them as office PCs. The steam machine doesn't have that issue.

[–] Joelk111@lemmy.world 5 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Exactly, but I don't see anything keeping them from selling the Frame at a loss or tight margin. What else are you going to use that with but Steam games?

Even the Steam Controller is useless without Steam Input, but I'd argue it won't necessarily sell more games. Maybe they could include it with the Steam Machine for "free" to bump the price of the machine up enough to not make sense for a company, but still sell it at a tight margin to sell more games.

[–] Don_alForno@feddit.org 5 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Why would they sell any hardware at a loss at all? Console manufacturers do it to lock people into their ecosystem and sell them games at a premium, Valve doesn't need that, people are already overwhelmingly favoring their store.

[–] Joelk111@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

The same reason people go into debt for a burrito. It's easier for people to justify a smaller cost now, and valve will make than money back later with extra games sold, especially in the case of the Frame.

[–] entwine@programming.dev 5 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Lol this reminds me of that time the US Air Force built a giant compute cluster using PlayStation 3s. Idk if Sony sold those at a loss, but they certainly didn't see any game purchases coming from the US Department of Defense

[–] Datz@szmer.info 8 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I was thinking that they might require a Steam account to order, the same way they stopped scalpers for Steam Deck, but there'd be ways around that.

It'd be hilarious if you needed something like "profile level 10" to order though.

[–] StopSpazzing@lemmy.world 3 points 13 hours ago

Ohhh only allowed to buy steam level / 10 whole numbers only. I could get 9. Woot.

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