[jhack]

The pricing is all out of sorts. Close to $500 more expensive than a PS5 for worse performance. I understand this is a PC and you can do other things with it, but if you're buying a gaming device to play games this is a horrible value.

[amlib]

If that's the cost of a _working_, well supported and _viable_ open platform, than so be it. People, especially the ones here at hacker news, ought to give way more value to this, else we lose it all.

[godshatter]

If you have hundreds of Steam games you bought through sales events, then that changes the calculus a bit.

[nxc18]

Does it? Do people actually play those games? I thought people just liked buying them and never playing the vast majority of them.

[HDBaseT]

Well, you can play them. Not playing the games you purchased sounds like an issue with you, rather than the system.

[Alchemista]

How many people who are that invested in their Steam library don't already have a mid to upper range PC?

[Kostic]

70% of the Steam users have a PC that's weaker than the Steam Machine[0]. These things will sell out, that's not the issue. The issue is that Valve probably won't have enough power to secure hardware deals to fulfill all the orders, thus limiting the growth of their hardware side.

[0] https://www.techpowerup.com/342970/valve-claims-steam-machin...

[frollogaston]

If they have a PC weaker than the Steam Machine, they were obviously not willing to pay for a stronger PC even when components were cheaper before, so how is the situation better now?

[simpaticoder]

Add "in their living room" and the answer is low. But is it a good experience to game in the living room, on the couch? To me that's an open question that is (sadly) very expensive to answer.