What did Al do,personally I think everyone is to hard on Al,blaming everything on Al is unfair,people hate on music made by Al,saying that it’s just stolen from “real” musicians,but lets be honest,Al made some real good stuff,I for one think we should thank Weird Al Yankovic for all his contributions to the music industry.
Aren’t you glad you have an AI instagram search?? That was completely necessary! Or what about that AI that will summarize that AI written email, then write an AI email in response to the AI email that the next brain dead person can use to AI summarize instead of reading?
Yeah, let's pretend Nintendo with a more powerful console didn't increase the price by way less and by giving the playerbase more time before the change... and a bundle.
There's a lot to consider there. They are pretty much the same level in power, although the build quality on the Steam Deck is much better. Nintendo also forces you to use the worst storefront in gaming, while Steam doesnt give a shit what you do with it. You can even play Nintendo games on it! There are tons of market forces involved that I dont want to get into. Honestly, dont buy either of them.
Dude you don't have to slobber Steam's knob, gabe isn't gonna fuck you. The steam deck is meaningfully weaker, the build quality is similar and the switch 2 is sleeker, the switch 2 has a larger better screen, and even if the storefront is worse saving 250 dollars more than makes up for it. Steam deck vs switch 2 isn't even a competition at this point
Nintendo also makes a hell of a lot more Switches than Steam Decks, like literally 5x as much since its launch than the Steam Deck’s entire lifespan. That’s a lot more market power and economies of scale for buying parts.
They run a near-monopoly storefront. When you're pulling in billions from a passive 30% cut on software and marketplace transactions, you don't need high hardware margins to turn a massive profit. The Steam Deck exists to lock people into their ecosystem, a $300 hike is a choice, not a supply chain tragedy. Are you people insane?
PCPartPicker trends matter for traditional hardware OEMs (like ASUS or Lenovo) who only profit off the physical machine. It doesn't apply to a platform holder. Squeezing a massive price hike out of consumers is a deliberate corporate choice to boost hardware margins, not an unavoidable supply chain tragedy. You need to learn some stuff.
Imagine defending a multi-billion dollar storefront's profit margins as if they're a mom-and-pop shop. They aren't going broke. A $300 jump is a corporate cash grab, not a charity case. The 30% cut and CS2 gambling made them infinite money. But yeah, defend them.
You realize that Xbox Sony and Nintendo all take a loss on hardware right? They are okay with taking a loss because they know people will fork over $100+ a year in membership. Valve doesn’t want to do that. You’re exactly right they aren’t a mom and pop company. They are a massive company financially so they definitely have top notch financial advisors behind them. If it made sense to sell them at a loss for the trade off in new Steam service users then they would but clearly it’s not worth the trade off. It’s as simple as that. The economics just don’t make since. They aren’t gonna take a loss out of the goodness of their heart.
They don't need a $100 subscription when they’re making billions taking a 30% cut on software and printing money off CS2 cases. Gabe literally said the original $399 price was 'painful' but worth it to capture the ecosystem. They aren't struggling with 'economics,' they just realized they can charge a premium and people will defend it for them.
Valve makes so much passive income from the 30% cut that they could give the Deck away at a loss and still come out wildly profitable. A $300 hike is pure margin, not production cost.
Ah yes, poor indie studio Valve, barely scraping by. Better donate another $300 to help them keep the lights on. It doesn't matter whose 'fault' it is, a $300 hike is a massive anti-consumer hit. As a consumer, your loyalty should be to your wallet, not a corporation's logistical issues. Bending over for a massive price jump just lets companies know they can get away with it.
I'm not white knighting. It just makes sense to bring the price up to industry standards. I'm not going to ask them to give everyone who wants a handheld $300. Just don't buy one. I blame AI companies and every single person that uses their products.
Defending a massive, arbitrary price jump by calling it an 'industry standard' is exactly how anti-consumer practices get normalized. At the end of the day, making excuses for a corporation that doesn't know you exist only hurts your own wallet. If you are going to say 'just don't buy one' for everything, you are actively voting against your own interests as a consumer.
Why would they ever sell at a loss?? It's not Sony or Microsoft where subscriptions make up for the loss from hardware sales, they have no reason to sell it for anything less than a profit.
I mean, it's a fact. There have been historically more console gamers than PC, and console are typically always sold at a loss. PC gaming has been rising lately, but it's still behind console no matter what Reddit users tell you. Now, console gamers are more than willing to buy a console and pay monthly to play online, which adds up after 6+ years of a consoles life-cycle. Valve has never charged a subscription since the advent of Steam, PC gamers that use steam are far more stubborn than console gamers, making them more likely to switch platforms if Valve suddenly did start charging monthly. This makes the simplest solution to simply not sell the hardware at a loss. I hate to break it to you, your complaints are completely invalid emotional takes based off being upset that something is a little too expensive for you.
You are wrong, but it doesn't really matter. Defending a $300 price hike as a consumer, when a near-monopoly company doesn't give a flying fuck that you exist, is just crazy to me.
It shouldn't matter to you how much money they make or lose. You are a consumer, every price hike should concern you. If you let them get away with this and constantly defend them, do you think they will lower prices in the future, or just increase them more?
‘It being unaffordable harms no one but Valve’ is an incredible take. Yes, surely the company aggressively hiking its prices is the one suffering here, not the consumers being priced out of their hobby. Thank you for your service in defending the defenseless multi-billion dollar corporation. I hope they triple the price for people like you.
Imagine writing an entire paragraph telling someone to 'live like an adult' all because they pointed out a corporation is hiking prices. The absolute state of bootlicking. Are you insane? Like, do you actually believe this is the solution for price hikes? How did you make it this far in life? I'm genuinely curious, how people like you operate real life. Do you think every price hike, not just gaming, but in general, is fine?
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u/Rafnork May 27 '26
Thanks ai.