What if Valve offered a $100 Steam Wallet credit with every Steam Machine purchase instead of subsidizing it?

Rentahamster

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
It appears that the question of pricing is a big topic of discussion, and given that according to Linus' preview video, the Steam Machine won't have a subsidized price and would be priced more like a PC rather than a console, it seems likely that the Steam Machine's launch price will be more than the price of current consoles.

Like Linus says in the video, Valve can't really rely on Steam purchases to help offset the cost of a Steam Machine since a user could theoretically never buy a game on Steam and simply use the Steam Machine as a general computing device. What's to stop some business from buying 10,000 of these subsidized machines and never make any purchases on Steam?

However, what if Valve offered a $100 Steam Wallet credit with every Steam Machine? That way, Valve is lowering the cost for people who actually use the machine within the Steam ecosystem, and doesn't subsidize the cost of the Steam Machine for buyers who won't be gaming on it.



Or, you know, they could just bundle in Half Life 3 with each Steam Machine purchase.
 
That's an interesting idea...so they sell the Steam Machine at break-even and then subsidize with the $100 Steam credit? Or where would you put the math on that one?

Btw, let's derail the thread and talk about Steam Points because I don't know what they are or what they can buy, but I have 242,000?
 
Grildon Tundy said:
That's an interesting idea...so they sell the Steam Machine at break-even and then subsidize with the $100 Steam credit? Or where would you put the math on that one?

Btw, let's derail the thread and talk about Steam Points because I don't know what they are or what they can buy, but I have 242,000?
Click to expand...
You gotta give "take my points" awards to every post you read on the Steam forums for the rest of your life
 
Grildon Tundy said:
That's an interesting idea...so they sell the Steam Machine at break-even and then subsidize with the $100 Steam credit? Or where would you put the math on that one?

Btw, let's derail the thread and talk about Steam Points because I don't know what they are or what they can buy, but I have 242,000?
Click to expand...
Looks like some animated startup screens for you Steam Deck/ Steam Machine (If you buy one)
 
Bundling it with a $100 steam gift card would cost them a minimum of $70... as obviously publishers of games still need to be paid actual money by steam when their game is purchased. So writing off the 30% cut for valve...


They could just lower the price of the machine by $70 instead.
 
Rentahamster said:
It appears that the question of pricing is a big topic of discussion, and given that according to Linus' preview video, the Steam Machine won't have a subsidized price and would be priced more like a PC rather than a console, it seems likely that the Steam Machine's launch price will be more than the price of current consoles.

Like Linus says in the video, Valve can't really rely on Steam purchases to help offset the cost of a Steam Machine since a user could theoretically never buy a game on Steam and simply use the Steam Machine as a general computing device. What's to stop some business from buying 10,000 of these subsidized machines and never make any purchases on Steam?

However, what if Valve offered a $100 Steam Wallet credit with every Steam Machine? That way, Valve is lowering the cost for people who actually use the machine within the Steam ecosystem, and doesn't subsidize the cost of the Steam Machine for buyers who won't be gaming on it.



Or, you know, they could just bundle in Half Life 3 with each Steam Machine purchase.
Click to expand...
No Way Funny Meme GIF

i have more then enough games I just want to play it on my TV easily.
 
Valve is having a Steam point jubilee on New Years Eve. For one hour only, each Steam point is worth $1.

So, what is out there in the $244,000 range? How would I even budget my time on such a thing. Hmmm.
 
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If I were Valve, I would let customers convert the value of their owned games into a discount toward the console.

Cancel your $700 backlog and get the Steam Machine for free!

Parks And Recreation Wow GIF
 
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Rentahamster said:
But that would also subsidize the Steam Machine for users who never buy a Steam game.
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I guess if you're using it as a way to encourage people to use steam and not something else but....

Who the hell is buying a steam machine and not using steam? Even among the few that will install windows on it they'll almost certainly still use steam for games on windows. Heck you'll need a Steam account to even buy one.

I don't think the people that are buying this need to be incentivised to buy their games on steam with a bundled gift card.
 
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Rentahamster said:
stop some business from buying 10,000 of these subsidized machines

what if Valve offered a $100 Steam Wallet credit with every Steam Machine?
Click to expand...
If I'm in charge of the IT purchasing decisions at a company, and need to buy 10,000 PCs... getting $1,000,000 in Steam credit seems like a good incentive to buy everyone Steam machines.
 
Or they could just break even or have a little bit of profit. I don't think Valve is anywhere near as concerned with this device being some console competitor than everyone on this forum seems to be. They aren't suddenly going to become a company that produces the amount of hardware it would take to do that.
 
It's not a strategy that works well; it's already been used by older consoles like the Bandai Arcadia. In short, indirect pricing isn't better than a truly low price.
 
The best way to sell this product is to release Half-Life 3, even though HL3 is possible without the Steam Cube.
But honestly, Valve has no reason to sell cheaply; it's a niche product. Basically, you need to want this product without considering other options.

I would charge $1000 for it; this product is non-perishable and is only sold through Valve's website, so there's no need to clear out the stock in a month.
 
Grildon Tundy said:
That's an interesting idea...so they sell the Steam Machine at break-even and then subsidize with the $100 Steam credit? Or where would you put the math on that one?

Btw, let's derail the thread and talk about Steam Points because I don't know what they are or what they can buy, but I have 242,000?
Click to expand...
I used steam points to buy an avatar of a drunk russian who looks like Putin and repeatedly headbutts forward.
 
Or they sell it for cost plus a reasonable profit margin and it sells to people who see value at that price point?
 
Wildebeest said:
I'm not sure if they have the ability to produce as many of these things as people imagine when they demand this really aggressive mass market pricing.
Click to expand...
They absolutely don't unless something big has changed in the last 1-1.5 years. It's possible but I have inside knowledge of their hardware procurement for the Deck and it would kind of shock people how rinky-dink the operation is.
 
There is no reason why this couldn't be $499, it's better than a Series S but lower than a PS5 in power with only 8GB of VRAM so $499 isn't out of the realm of possibility. People expecting prices in the region of $800-1000 I think are going way too high and it defeats Valve's goal with releasing this device. I could be completely wrong though and they actually try to charge that with a HL3 bundle.
 
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No, and can you even do anything with Steam OS except playing games? I mean I know it's UNIX but is there even a file explorer? (I don't know since I've never used Steam OS)
 
Three said:
There is no reason why this couldn't be $499, it's better than a Series S but lower than a PS5 in power with only 8GB of VRAM so $499 isn't out of the realm of possibility. People expecting prices in the region of $800-1000 I think are going way too high and it defeats Valve's goal with releasing this device. I could be completely wrong though and they actually try to charge that with a HL3 bundle.
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if it was $499, they wouldnt have gone out of their way to tell all those youtubers "it wont be priced like consoles" as a preemptive damage control.
thats basically the console price.
 
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Launch with Half Life 3,
bundle in Half Life 3 and every valve game ever, with a code that grants you every Valve published game going forward
 
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damidu said:
if it was $499, they wouldnt have gone out of their way to tell all those youtubers "it wont be priced like consoles"
thats basically the console price.
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Yeah I agree but I think they could price it at that without losing money based on what they're actually selling. I have seen RX 7000M based gaming laptops with more RAM and 4 times the storage (2TB vs 512gb), not to mention a screen, battery, etc, going for $700 in sales. I think the expectation of them trying to charge $800-1000 is too high, but then again I could be completely wrong and they actually try to do that.
 
If someone buys a Steam Machine, they're almost certain to buy games on Steam; they don't need to offer credit for that.

What they need to do is ensure that as many users as possible buy the hardware, meaning making the price as attractive as possible.
 
20% off steam wallet with that PayPal promotion that's currently running

So it's basically already 20% off you can just buy credit and wait for the device

I might do that
 
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Rentahamster said:
It appears that the question of pricing is a big topic of discussion, and given that according to Linus' preview video, the Steam Machine won't have a subsidized price and would be priced more like a PC rather than a console, it seems likely that the Steam Machine's launch price will be more than the price of current consoles.

Like Linus says in the video, Valve can't really rely on Steam purchases to help offset the cost of a Steam Machine since a user could theoretically never buy a game on Steam and simply use the Steam Machine as a general computing device. What's to stop some business from buying 10,000 of these subsidized machines and never make any purchases on Steam?

However, what if Valve offered a $100 Steam Wallet credit with every Steam Machine? That way, Valve is lowering the cost for people who actually use the machine within the Steam ecosystem, and doesn't subsidize the cost of the Steam Machine for buyers who won't be gaming on it.



Or, you know, they could just bundle in Half Life 3 with each Steam Machine purchase.
Click to expand...

This is actually a pretty smart and well-thought out idea. Personally I still think they could aim for $499 (512 GB) & $649/$699, but NGL some of the videos on RAM shortages and the literal Devil incarnate Sam Altman doing clearly illegal & anticompetitive hoarding of RAM to power his A.I hell have me worried those prices I guessed earlier for Steam Machine might not be hit.

BUT, what you're suggesting could be a great way of doing a form of soft-subsidization, in a sense. Hopefully people at Valve are taking it under consideration.
 
They should consider bundling a popular game that casual players already know and love, and then invest heavily in advertising with a message like:

"Like a console - but with more games, free multiplayer and free cloud saves."

A partnership with major titles such as Fortnite or Minecraft could also help a lot.
 
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I'd rather see something like an exclusive sales event, only for Steam Machine platform users.

Something on the level of their Summer Sale, but exclusive to the device. All discounts would be on games verified to work perfectly and render great on the device. And publishers would still be making a bit of bank as they always do on these sales events.
 
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Geometric-Crusher said:
It's not a strategy that works well; it's already been used by older consoles like the Bandai Arcadia. In short, indirect pricing isn't better than a truly low price.
Click to expand...
With that gift of economic understanding of yours, you should contact Gabe.
I'm sure he could use someone with your skills and expertise, because you clearly sound like you are outsmarting a billion dollar gaming company.

Geometric-Crusher said:
Steam Machine is designed to be used with a controller, what are the chances of them making the game more casual because of that?
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No it's not.
It has full native keyboard and mouse support.
It's a PC by the end of the day.
What you do with it is up to you.
Emedan said:
No, and can you even do anything with Steam OS except playing games? I mean I know it's UNIX but is there even a file explorer? (I don't know since I've never used Steam OS)
Click to expand...
You can boot it up in desktop mode and use it like a regular pc.
 
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