A thousand dollars. That's the upper limit for the as-yet-underrated Steam Machine, but it's a little scary. This comes from industry analyst Mata Piscatela, who – I must point out straight – was taking an outside guess, not committing to a bet.
Still, he knows his stuff about it, and as he sees it, such a sticker should follow what the Steam Machine has to offer. We should think of its cost not so much as the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S, or certainly not the Nintendo Switch 2… but as a PC-console hybrid. In fact, it sounds increasingly likely that we should think of the next-gen Xbox in the same light.
Cost of doing business
Speaking to GamesRadar+, the knowledgeable Piscatela began with something I can relate to: “I'm glad I'm not in charge of picking.” Valve has some tough decisions to make in this economic environment where electronic components like RAM that were once quite affordable are now brutally expensive. So how can they ensure that they achieve a profit margin without undercutting so many consumers?
Jason Momoa is great in Helldivers Movie
On Super Earth and beyond.
Perhaps the answer is simply that they cannot. As many of us have seen first hand, luxury goods are becoming more and more luxury– focused. In many parts of the Western world, and indeed in the East as well, what was once affordable for many lower middle class individuals is hitting a point where the upper middle class are lucky if they can spend on it. Since the Steam Machine combines the basic concepts of a PC with a console form factor, it has to go hard on the specs, otherwise it's just a Steam Deck in the shape of a cube.
“I saw $1,000,” Piscatela told GamesRadar+ when asked. But there is a silver lining: he could also see $800 or even $700. “I could see them going crazy and going under $700 if they want to eat some of that cost.” (I don't think it's going to happen, and I'm counting, and I don't want to speak for him, but Piscatela might feel the same way. See: “going crazy.”)
Piscatela warns that Valve has longer-term concerns. “Where will the components be in six months? How many will they make, how can they distribute them?” Sure, these kinds of puzzles have always existed as long as such hardware has been made. Yet in today's turbulent economic times, especially in the United States, there are so many fluctuations—and they are generally upward trends, because of course they are.
It remains to be seen where the Steam Machine will land, but this much I can say. If it's $1000, I'm out. It's sad, but it's the facts.
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People really don't want to scan their faces to use Discord.
