Gaming handheld prices are out of control, except for the Steam Deck
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I think the big difference is that they seem to be optimizing for customer satisfaction where others are not.
My favorite example I use often is how the Steam Deck comes with a case. It’s free and there’s not even an option to not get it. They know you need one, they include it. The Switch doesn’t come with a case. They know you need one but they don’t care. You’ll buy one if you want it bad enough and that’s more revenue.
It’s just a different type of optimization.
I have a switch that never left the house, definitely not needed.
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Two things massively help Valve:
Steam is a goddamned money printing machine, they are the most profitable software company per capita, per employee... possibly bar none.
Also... they're not publically traded.
They do not have investors constantly forcing maximization of short term profits at the cost of literally everything else.
... So they can afford to ... not price gauge everyone.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Probably the biggest advantage they have is that they can sell devices at cost or even at a loss and still profit from increased Steam game sales, like how other console makers operate.
3rd parties can't compete with that. Not even close. If there's no profit from the device itself, there's no motivation to make it. And apart from the hardware cost, they also need to pay for the R&D and corporate maintenance. They can't compete with the Steam Deck. If they made an exact Steam Deck clone, they'd have to make it, idk ~$40 more to make a profit, but no one would buy it because the Steam Deck is the same for less. They have to give it slightly higher specs to give it a niche. That might take hardware cost up to $500 and then charge $150 more to make up for the distributor fees and then $100 to make it actually profitable. But at that point, they've already lost most budget and casual gamers, they might as well aim at whales and enthusiasts and make profits $300. If a $950 device sells half as well as a $750 device, it's still more profitable.
Edit: more realistic numbers
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I have a switch that never left the house, definitely not needed.
wrote last edited by [email protected]I have a switch
I’m sorry for your lo$$.
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Newer handhelds might have more power, but I still think the Deck is the best value for what it offers.
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Newer handhelds might have more power, but I still think the Deck is the best value for what it offers.
I care less about power and more about silence. I would pay double for a Steam Deck that doesn't sound like a hair dryer when I try to play Baldur’s Gate 3 on low.
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Probably the biggest advantage they have is that they can sell devices at cost or even at a loss and still profit from increased Steam game sales, like how other console makers operate.
3rd parties can't compete with that. Not even close. If there's no profit from the device itself, there's no motivation to make it. And apart from the hardware cost, they also need to pay for the R&D and corporate maintenance. They can't compete with the Steam Deck. If they made an exact Steam Deck clone, they'd have to make it, idk ~$40 more to make a profit, but no one would buy it because the Steam Deck is the same for less. They have to give it slightly higher specs to give it a niche. That might take hardware cost up to $500 and then charge $150 more to make up for the distributor fees and then $100 to make it actually profitable. But at that point, they've already lost most budget and casual gamers, they might as well aim at whales and enthusiasts and make profits $300. If a $950 device sells half as well as a $750 device, it's still more profitable.
Edit: more realistic numbers
Yep, this is a good explanation of more of the nitty gritty of it in more granular detail!
When you can afford to eat some of the cost... or... you don't have shareholders telling you not to do that... well, then you get good ole 'how capitalism is supposed to work! (tm)'.
Problem of course being that uh, you can just chase the luxury market for greater profit margins, stop making shit for the poors... this can work well in the short/medium term, but in the long run... if everyone does that...
... then you destroy your customer base, and the entire economy, and probably yourself.
And that's not even getting into how companies have their own version of 'keeping up with the joneses'... its called going into massive debt to fund an expansion because your competitor just did that... and then going into more debt to finance a stock buyback... but hey nbd, companies can fail and go bankrupt, no problem, everyone other than those helming the ship get fucked, they get golden parachutes.
Sure would be neat if we maybe had some other kind of system idk
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They have advantage of being able to sell at almost cost because they make so much on game sales. Like the other console vendors.
Actually kind of unfair business practice.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Ironically, leveraging this kind of tactic is what allowed Google, Amazon and Apple and Microsoft to become as huge as they did, as fast as they did.
Got a whole bunch of lines of business that can functionally subsidize other ventures, so they can make a push for market share.
But of course this doesn't take too long to turn your whole economy into oligopoly, and thus your society into oligarchy... at best.
I... I think Gabe really just isn't as fundamentally awful of a person as most other tech company heads.
Yeah, he's got a yacht, but he could be so, so much fucking worse...
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Probably the biggest advantage they have is that they can sell devices at cost or even at a loss and still profit from increased Steam game sales, like how other console makers operate.
3rd parties can't compete with that. Not even close. If there's no profit from the device itself, there's no motivation to make it. And apart from the hardware cost, they also need to pay for the R&D and corporate maintenance. They can't compete with the Steam Deck. If they made an exact Steam Deck clone, they'd have to make it, idk ~$40 more to make a profit, but no one would buy it because the Steam Deck is the same for less. They have to give it slightly higher specs to give it a niche. That might take hardware cost up to $500 and then charge $150 more to make up for the distributor fees and then $100 to make it actually profitable. But at that point, they've already lost most budget and casual gamers, they might as well aim at whales and enthusiasts and make profits $300. If a $950 device sells half as well as a $750 device, it's still more profitable.
Edit: more realistic numbers
The Steam Deck is not sold at a loss. The initial pricing for the 64 GB unit was barely profitable, but this quickly changed with production ramping up.
This was confirmed by Valve themselves in an interview that happened months after Gabe's famous comments about the pricing.
So yes, Valve profits from the games too, but that's not used to subsidize the Steam Deck's price.
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Two things massively help Valve:
Steam is a goddamned money printing machine, they are the most profitable software company per capita, per employee... possibly bar none.
Also... they're not publically traded.
They do not have investors constantly forcing maximization of short term profits at the cost of literally everything else.
... So they can afford to ... not price gauge everyone.
Also... they're not publically traded.
They do not have investors constantly forcing maximization of short term profits at the cost of literally everything else.
I fantasize about the idea of starting private companies for things currently dominated by public companies, with the sole idea of not being greedy and shitty.
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Two things massively help Valve:
Steam is a goddamned money printing machine, they are the most profitable software company per capita, per employee... possibly bar none.
Also... they're not publically traded.
They do not have investors constantly forcing maximization of short term profits at the cost of literally everything else.
... So they can afford to ... not price gauge everyone.
I honestly don't understand why most companies aren't private instead of public. Like which founder looks forward to answering to investors when they could just be answerable to themselves and their employees and maybe board, like are they looking for a massive exit payout by going public or to raise funds to become a bigger company, but I argue if you are making enough to be profitable why chase being bigger
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I care less about power and more about silence. I would pay double for a Steam Deck that doesn't sound like a hair dryer when I try to play Baldur’s Gate 3 on low.
That's kinda about power though. Think about going up a pulling a trailer up a hill with a vehicle that has a small engine versus a bigger one.
The small engine vehicle might make the hill, but it's going up gear lower, rev higher, and probably heat up a bit.
The bigger vehicle will handle the hill and load with more grace, but may also use more fuel in everyday situations or cost more.
BG3 is kinda stretching the Deck's engine (APU), and the fans are running like made to compensate for the heat running at 100% for longer periods. I've a few games that stretch the Deck's capabilities so for those I just stream from my more powerful PC
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I have a switch
I’m sorry for your lo$$.
I had a first gen and bought it at a discount (10% for Newsletter sign up I immediately cancelled after ordering hah). Iirc it cost me about 350€ which was still a lot but compared to what's going on now...
Gifted it to my mother for the grandkids because I bought a steamdeck and never used the switch again.
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That's kinda about power though. Think about going up a pulling a trailer up a hill with a vehicle that has a small engine versus a bigger one.
The small engine vehicle might make the hill, but it's going up gear lower, rev higher, and probably heat up a bit.
The bigger vehicle will handle the hill and load with more grace, but may also use more fuel in everyday situations or cost more.
BG3 is kinda stretching the Deck's engine (APU), and the fans are running like made to compensate for the heat running at 100% for longer periods. I've a few games that stretch the Deck's capabilities so for those I just stream from my more powerful PC
Thats only Part of it, the others are efficence, Formfaktor and weight. Make it 2-5cm thicker and its now nearly silent
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Once again Valve proves they actually understand what people want; a relatively cheap and effective system that lets people play the games they want to play
Well people also want HL3, and here we are...
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I honestly don't understand why most companies aren't private instead of public. Like which founder looks forward to answering to investors when they could just be answerable to themselves and their employees and maybe board, like are they looking for a massive exit payout by going public or to raise funds to become a bigger company, but I argue if you are making enough to be profitable why chase being bigger
wrote last edited by [email protected]You don't want to be profitable. You want to be rich
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Thats only Part of it, the others are efficence, Formfaktor and weight. Make it 2-5cm thicker and its now nearly silent
I think even 1cm would be enough. Take a look at the ifixit steamdeck heatsink replacement guide to see how small the heatsink is.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Steam+Deck+Heatsink+Replacement/148904
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Crys in Australian
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Newer handhelds might have more power, but I still think the Deck is the best value for what it offers.
I would love to see a lower powered and low budget focused one. Powerful enough for locally running a web browser, normal Linux stuff like SSH and some low spec games like CDDA. Otherwise most games would be played by streaming it from your desktop.
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The Steam Deck is not sold at a loss. The initial pricing for the 64 GB unit was barely profitable, but this quickly changed with production ramping up.
This was confirmed by Valve themselves in an interview that happened months after Gabe's famous comments about the pricing.
So yes, Valve profits from the games too, but that's not used to subsidize the Steam Deck's price.
Could there be an argument about the R&D costs not being factored in there? So for companies that can't compete, its literally a skill issue.
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I think the big difference is that they seem to be optimizing for customer satisfaction where others are not.
My favorite example I use often is how the Steam Deck comes with a case. It’s free and there’s not even an option to not get it. They know you need one, they include it. The Switch doesn’t come with a case. They know you need one but they don’t care. You’ll buy one if you want it bad enough and that’s more revenue.
It’s just a different type of optimization.
I'm still amazed that the Lenovo Legion Go costs almost $300 more than the SD but does not come with a case.
