Ask Lemmy

maybe but so far its been a pretty big success and driving sales of software so.....

They literally said they aren't giving up on the hardware, despite all the shit going on, so I have no reason to believe they would.

They wanted the success they got from the steam deck for a decade before it happened

It's going to be at least another decade before they even consider the possibility of bowing out again

the prices are not because they 'don't have the means to scale', all computing hardware is suffering major supply issues and price hikes because of the ai bubble.

They price hiked the steam deck by a lot and it still sold out in one day. With that kind of demand why would they stop?

No, they're not hurting for cash and everyone is dealing with crazy hardware pricing right now.

Windows is something like 93% of the Steam market the last survey. Valves survival depends on Microsoft not fucking them over. Doing something that may strictly be costing them some money for reducing the threat makes economic sense.

Pushing the Linux number higher will make it more attractive to make a native Linux version of games.

They could easily have given up on VR hardware after the Index, but I'm glad they didn't. We need someone to compete with Meta.

Valve is one of the rare company that has a vision(that people actually wanted) and will stick to it long term while adapt to the situation, and they already sink millions if not billions into develop their own unique ecosystem for that. Every hardware you see them put out before this, the first controller, first console, VR, OS, Steam Link, all lead to what they have today. They climbed a cliff to reach here, this temporary setback is really nothing to them.

The Steam Deck was instrumental in getting Linux gaming to be taken seriously. If Valve backs out, things will go back to windows being the default again.

They don’t have the means to produce at scale

Neither does Apple. The production is easy to outsource.

Why? The price went up because the cost of components went up. No one else is selling comparable hardware for less.

They don’t have the means to produce at scale...steamdeck OLED

They aren't going to be manufacturing it themselves. They'll pay someone else to make it.

And I'd bet that that party isn't limited by their own capacity, but by how many units Valve's ordered, which is going to be limited by how many units that Valve thinks the public will buy at current elevated-by-memory-prices rates.

EDIT: Sounds like their manufacturer is Quanta Computer, in Taiwan.

EDIT2: And they probably aren't constrained by their own capacity:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Lam

Quanta designs and manufactures for clients such as Apple Inc., Compaq, Dell, Gateway, BlackBerry Ltd., Hewlett-Packard,[13] Alienware, Cisco Systems, Fujitsu, Gericom, Lenovo, LG, Maxdata, MPC, Sharp Corporation, Siemens, Sony, Sun Microsystems, and Toshiba.[citation needed] It is the largest manufacturer of PC notebooks worldwide[14] and has diversified into servers, storage, and liquid-crystal display terminals.[15]

Not a chance in hell.

Nobody has ever been more wrong about anything in human history.

They're having trouble because sales are so high. You understand that's good for a company right?

I'd say no. Small production scale, highly niche target audience, moderately-to-significantly higher than average pricing for Steam/ Valve hardware has pretty much always been their thing.

Basically, Steam / Valve hardware (and the company in general) have a strong "for gamers, by gamers" reputation. One of their methods of maintaining that reputation is by incorporating, for lack of a better term, "premium quirks" into their things (Steam Link was relatively novel at its release (and kinda sucked), the OG Steam controller with the dual touchpads and gyroscope, finger tracking and grip strength monitoring on the Valve Index controllers). They know that the Average Joe gamer will probably just pick up a Quest headset or an Xbox controller, so rather than try to fight for market share that has a built-in customer base (for example, most people that already own a console will just use the controller they already have rather than buy a new one for their PC), they maintain their "gamers first" reputation by offering a more niche, "premium" option.

Edit: Also, I've never not seen the Deck being touted as a massive success. Like you said, even at higher than normal prices people will buy them. It would be silly for them not to keep that money printer going, they don't even necessarily need to increase production, people will practically buy them at whatever speed they come off the line.

Extremely doubtful, the Steamdeck seems to be a passion project for Gaben, it is somethibg he believes in.

The question of hardware components is more of an issue of planning.

What Valve needs to do, and probably already have done, is to set up future contracts with manufacturers so they can get the components at a lower price.

They have been actively expanding it for many years now. Hardware is a long term strategy for Valve and they are definitely not going to step away from it anytime soon. The Steam Deck was and still is hugely successful, and a big factor differentiating Steam from other PC game platforms. The current market might mean a short term change of plans, not more than that.

They better not. I want a fucking Steam controller.

I have never gotten a Steam Hardware product directly from steam, always used. Even now I can get a used OLED Steam Deck 512GB for about 450€ in very good condition in my area. That's the thing about their Hardware is, that they are usually novelty products that people will always have a good reason to keep or resell. The fact that they can't keep up with production doesn't mean you can't have their products. Steam sells them and gets their share of profits anyway, so it doesn't really matter how you get yours, as long as they keep cleaning out their stock.