I don't think the problem is that there aren't people in the market for it, but more that increasingly products that used to be meant for the average middle class are now perks for wealthier individuals - to the point where I think if there's a collapse of the AAA gaming industry is because there's not enough wealthy people time to accommodate for all the titles.

Like GTA VI is speculated to release at around 90$, and any AAA game that will drop around time will probably have a bad release.

This is just yet another example that this product isn't at the reach of "the people", it's yet another luxury item.

Not because Valve wanted to, but because this new standard of scalping, hoarding and squeezing the most out of the market is having repercussions across industries.

The sad thing is that Valve used to be on the other side of the fence, at least for some products, it seemed like it was aimed to be accessible for gamers in a pro-consumer way (not all of course, that would be impossible).

In the end even Valve had to fall in line with the rest, and it's just sad to witness it.

So let people grief, they're not just grieving Valve, but also the one of the last hopes of a group that still thought there was a counter culture in the current state of the world.

> In the end even Valve had to fall in line with the rest, and it's just sad to witness it.

It's sad that LLMs have hiked prices so high that economical computers don't exist? I would agree, but your phrasing makes it sound like Valve "had to get involved in shady practices because everyone else did" but the truth is that you can't build a computer at the moment for a reasonable cost because tech bros are speed racing us to a global climate catastrophe.

Yes my phrasing was deliberately like that because I think that's the general sentiment.

I don't think Valve has high margins with this when you factor in assembly and distribution costs, and I don't think Valve has the business model like some console makers had where they could afford to sell at a loss - it would be sold out anyway.

The way you summed it up as the truth, is spot on.

For basically my whole gaming life starting in the early 1990s, PC games have been ~$50. It is frankly shocking that the price points have been so sticky. $50 in 2000 dollars is $96 today. Inflation is real. It sucks, but that's the reality of economics. It is completely reasonable for video game prices to appreciate along with everything else.

The problem was mainly the income not following inflation.

Back then you paid $50 and got the whole game - and you actually own it. I still have game install CDs from that time. Now you pay $80-90 and you get a cash shop that is selling you incomplete parts of a game, and also it has online DRM that can revoke your access at any time if they decide to ban you.

People have been buying $1000+ iPhones for a decade now.

Except others have done the same comparison to current PC prices and still found a ~50% markup.

Grab pc part picker and do it yourself, it's not complex.

How can there be 50% markup if the ram price is alone like 500$

And the parts aren't comparable when it comes to size and acoustics (and, frankly, aesthetics). The Steam Machine is a very small and, by all accounts, very quiet box. Might not be worth it to most people, of course, but I've seen a ton of supposed comparisons that don't take that into account at all. To say nothing of the people who claim to be able to build something cheaper but then talk about buying used parts or reusing RAM and SSDs they had purchased last years or earlier.