Article discusses the effect of rising hardware prices on the deck.
Some highlights:
How much worse has the pricing situation gotten for Valve since November? Superdata Research founder and SuperJoost newsletter author Joost van Dreunen suggested that the 512GB Steam Machine model would probably run $50 to $75 more than he expected when the Steam Machine was announced, and to expect a price “potentially $100+ above target” for the high-end 2TB model. That would mean a $599 to $629 price at the low-end and $849 to $899 for the high-end model, in his estimation.
Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter agreed that, even with the additional component costs, Valve would likely “try to get it out at $599 or so for the 512GB version,” A starting price higher than that would mean “abysmal” sales, he added. “I think $700 is a death sentence and $1,000 is unsellable.”
I’d recommend reading the article though, it has a lot more of value than just those quotes. It goes on to talk about how the price increases will likely hurt valve more than traditional console makers, and how these increases will affect sales.
Here’s a way to think of it:
It’s a mini-pc.
But a bit bigger.
So… yeah, even if it is expensive by console pricing standards… $600 to $1000 is actually a pretty reasonable range for comparably powerful mini-pcs.
Look up like NUCBoxes or Minisforum miniPCs.
The runor that MooresLawIsDead was initially running with was that the actual custom chip they are using was originally slated to be used in something like a new variant of a MicroSlop Surface tablet.
AMD fabbed a bunch, MicroSlop bailed on the idea, leaving AMD with a bunch of weird custom chips they don’t know wtf to do with.
Valve then goes to AMD, begins to uh, think with portals, or whatever.
Also to get access to using it as a PC fully, PC Games, Way More Apps, and mod support is more than worth it
Its basically Steam Deck in a different way
Yes, that’s all true.
It is not just a console, it is a full-on PC.
Run your own home media mode, browse the web, make stuff in Blender, write and compile code, etc, I do all of that regularly with my docked Steam Deck.
But I went with Mini PC rather than Steam Deck for comparison because, though it very much literally is a Steam Deck 3.0, in a lot of ways… I think its closer to a mini PC than anything else.
MiniPCs are basically small boxes often comparable to, I dunno, a large jar of pickles, in size. They… also do not have the functionality of a gamepad controller, or built in screen, as actual physical parts of them.
And they basically always have integrated cpu+mobo, RAM is usually laptop SODIMM form factor, and then either the cpu they use is actually an apu, or an npu, as opposed to laptops often having a discrete but laptop sized gpu, or full-on pcs typically having full-on gpus.
Or, its becoming more common for a mini-pc to juat be designed with either an oculink port, or a usb 4.0/tbunderbolt port, with the idea being that its a decent general purpose work pc in its own, and if you want to game on it, you get an eGPU cradle, stick a power supply and desktop GPU in it, and then connect it to the miniPC, which can then use that GPU nearly as efficiently as if it were just directly plugged into it.
That’s true didn’t even think of all those use cases and good specs very beneficial indeed. Thanks for that a lot to think about
For fun I would love somebody have it be their daily driver for the day at work and then they go “alright I’m heading home” then plug it in at home to game
Maybe that one 3rd party company that made the screen that is attached to top of Xbox Series X|S that opens and closes. Can make one for Steam Machine to be able to use it anywhere. Just have to plug it into an outlet
Edit: Also wonder if they would ever do next Steam Deck in future to be a mini pc and Steam Machine in future to be a full-blown upper-end pc performance-wise