Meta sells their hardware at a loss and then make it back through store sales and advertising data. Steam cannot do this because it’s just a PC and they are not an advertising company.
I literally gave away my quest 3 headset because of facebook’s walled garden ecosystem, ads, and telemetry. If I didn’t know someone that was about to buy one I’d have recycled it.
If Valve did the same shit with the Steam Frame I wouldn’t even accept one as a gift. I will absolutely pay a premium for hardware I actually own.
It’s steam, they hold an effective monopoly on PC game sales.
I’d understand this argument with the steam machine as businesses could buy them cheap for non-gaming use but there really is not much of a non-gaming market for VR hardware.
With the machine they can’t, because it would work so well as a general purpose computer for offices and such. I think they could have subsidized it a bit though as long as it didn’t dip below the price of an equivalent traditional desktop. For the frame though, they absolutely could. I suppose some percentage of users won’t buy from steam, but I don’t think price would affect that percentage much unless it was super cheap. Realistically it’s going to push game sales a lot for valve.
The Frame is even moreso problematic in that regard because it enjoys very little competition. If a business wanted to use a bunch of them for say, training a workforce, they very well might buy them by the thousands, put them into service, and Valve will never see a dollar of it. We saw this happen many times with the Steam Deck. Disney used them to control robots, the military used them to control turrets, and those are just some of the ones we know of.
For the Steam Machine, Valve is selling them via a lottery, and only to pre-existing accounts. I suspect they will do the same for the Frame.
Also, I’m skeptical that businesses would even want to buy many, because you don’t see them buying Quests by the thousands. It probably would still end up as a small number compared to total sales.
The Playstation supercomputer is pretty funny though
What they could do is, since you bought the machine/frame on the store, they could give a certain number of discounts on games purchased after purchasing the device (like giving away Half Life: Alyx with the purchase of the Index/controller). Buy a steam machine, get 5 X% discounts on any games in store, buy a steam frame same except exclusive to VR titles. Still on the fence for my own use, although old, my Vive is still a solid headset
At 1500 it’s priced alongside higher end boutique headsets like the big screen beyond and pimax’s offerings.
And that’s not to mention just how much cheaper the Quest 3 is.
Yeah, but then you’d have to own and use a Meta product. Not remotely worth it.
Ugh, here we go again, say it with me now:
Meta sells their hardware at a loss and then make it back through store sales and advertising data. Steam cannot do this because it’s just a PC and they are not an advertising company.
Yeah, and valve could do that too if they wanted.
I mean if they wanted to lose their asses, sure.
They really wouldn’t.
I literally gave away my quest 3 headset because of facebook’s walled garden ecosystem, ads, and telemetry. If I didn’t know someone that was about to buy one I’d have recycled it.
If Valve did the same shit with the Steam Frame I wouldn’t even accept one as a gift. I will absolutely pay a premium for hardware I actually own.
This is not complicated. Sell open hardware at a loss, buyer doesn’t use it to buy games, money is never recuperated. Valve loses their asses.
It’s steam, they hold an effective monopoly on PC game sales.
I’d understand this argument with the steam machine as businesses could buy them cheap for non-gaming use but there really is not much of a non-gaming market for VR hardware.
Did I say Steam games? I said games.
Uhhhh yes? There’s an enormous commercial market. One that will grow larger with this headset being released.
If that’s the case the commercial market should be buying up PSVRs and Quest 3s in mass.
With the machine they can’t, because it would work so well as a general purpose computer for offices and such. I think they could have subsidized it a bit though as long as it didn’t dip below the price of an equivalent traditional desktop. For the frame though, they absolutely could. I suppose some percentage of users won’t buy from steam, but I don’t think price would affect that percentage much unless it was super cheap. Realistically it’s going to push game sales a lot for valve.
The Frame is even moreso problematic in that regard because it enjoys very little competition. If a business wanted to use a bunch of them for say, training a workforce, they very well might buy them by the thousands, put them into service, and Valve will never see a dollar of it. We saw this happen many times with the Steam Deck. Disney used them to control robots, the military used them to control turrets, and those are just some of the ones we know of.
Back in the day the military bought up thousands of PS4s and used them to make a supercomputer.
For the Steam Machine, Valve is selling them via a lottery, and only to pre-existing accounts. I suspect they will do the same for the Frame.
Also, I’m skeptical that businesses would even want to buy many, because you don’t see them buying Quests by the thousands. It probably would still end up as a small number compared to total sales.
The Playstation supercomputer is pretty funny though
Say it with me now…
What they could do is, since you bought the machine/frame on the store, they could give a certain number of discounts on games purchased after purchasing the device (like giving away Half Life: Alyx with the purchase of the Index/controller). Buy a steam machine, get 5 X% discounts on any games in store, buy a steam frame same except exclusive to VR titles. Still on the fence for my own use, although old, my Vive is still a solid headset
A dollar denied Cuckerberg is worth ten times its face value
Theoretically? Sure. Realistically though? Money is finite for most of us. And some stuff is just out of budget.
Yeah for you maybe, but for the general market is that going to be the case?