this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2026
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Valve already stated from the beginning that they didn't want to subsidize the cost like a console but they also believe that idea is infeasible which isn't true, especially in the short term.
The whole point of the hardware is to push steam software and increase the Linux marketshare which would encourage other OEMs to offer SteamOS or Linux from factory. No one is buying this to not use it for gaming under a subsidized price because there are much better options for that purpose.
The primary buyer would still be a steam user, meaning they'd make that money back on steam purchases. They could even run a launch promo to offer reduced price with a steam wallet combo. At least give it a month or two before the final price sets in stone.
Even if they had launched at the original $750 earlier this summer with a fat price increase warning, I think the average user would have been more receptive to buying at the full price in the future. It's the getting slapped with a $1k pricetag from the start that's got everyone shell shocked.
If it cost a few hundred dollars less per unit than comparable small form factor PCs, then small businesses probably would. When you only need something that works and don't care about support contracts or having a standardized hardware fleet, anything cheap will do the job.