We could, you know, just wait and see.

*ducks*

I’m aware of Valve being very generous with warranty/replacements of controller hardware for the Index. Even years after the warranty is up. But I think this is because of the major durability issues and known defects that the Index Controllers have.

In any case, Valve seemingly has lost money on a certain percentage of Valve Index kits/controller hardware. Based on how many people I know, including myself, who have gotten replacement hardware from Valve. Sometimes many times for recurring issues.

But I’m not aware of Valve doing the same for the Deck.

Edit: and you can tell they focused really hard on making the new controllers more durable:

• No charging port to melt
• durable sticks that won’t start drifting
• No special finish on the controller that can be worn/scratched away
• No internal battery to go bad
• seemingly far fewer delicate parts

Funny point on the melting charging port. 2 years or so after the Index came out, SteamVR started warning using with a status dialog that told users to stop charging their controllers while they use them. They never accounted for long play sessions and people who would want to charge while playing.

USB-C has durability issues when used like that.

They can't sell them at a loss without a locked-down ecosystem. Sony learned that the hard way with the OtherOS support for the PS3 that lead to a ton of them being purchased to build cheap supercomputer ls and never spending a dime on games or software to cover the loss.

Console manufacturers sell at a loss because they need to sell the console first before they can sell anything else. They can expect to make that money back on software the user could not have bought without the console.

Valve doesn't need people to buy Steam Machines to get them to start using Steam. In fact, I suspect most units sold will be to users who are already invested in the ecosystem. Selling at a loss would just be a straight loss to them.

Since they've said it's basically an entry level gaming PC that will cost more than a console, I think the >700, <$1000 speculation is most likely.

I wonder if GPU/motherboard manufacturers are not leaving money on the table by not selling an all-in-one gaming motherboard like the one in the Steam Machine.

Built-in GPU and VRAM with the CPU, RAM and cooling optional.

To be fair, I don't watch either of those youtubers. So I had no knowledge of this.

I was expecting an APU

Yeah they said they are pricing the Steam Machine at PC market prices, but they do having to contend with reality. There are consoles on the market that are more powerful at a lower price point, it will dampen their sales for sure. I mean most pcgamers probably have more powerful hardware already, what is the incentive? Sure small form factor, but is it worth a premium price to the average pcgamer? Console peasants will turn their noses up at it, so who are they marketing to?

I can see the Steam Frames selling better due to it being a fully untethered VRPC headset that can play more than just VR games. Not to mention you can stream from a more powerful PC to the frames making the battery last much longer and better gfx fidelity.

The Steam Controller has to contend with a flooded market of users used to using one type of controller, so a little bit of an uphill battle there too.