this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2025
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That just wouldn't happen unless the steam machine costs less than $300. That's usually the top a corporation is willing to pay for bulk mini nucs, which is all that they want for clerk desks. Information workers get laptops with dell or HP embossed in the lid. Workstations for top design or video editing require way more juice than the Steam Machine can deliver, those are bought on order to professional boutiques, or they just buy Apple. Also, no administrator will sit on the steam shop page to buy one at a time, they like their bulk purchases and Valve can simple refuse anyone buying hundreds of machines. Then, corporations don't just want the PC, they want tech support, advanced guarantee schemes, etc. This usually come with a subscription per seat. All things Valve simply won't provide. It won't even register as an option for businesses.
This is an unfounded concern.
Not an unfounded concern if you remember the PS3. The original model was sold at a loss, and also able to run Linux.
People were buying them like crazy for non gaming uses, including building super computer clusters. An entire aftermarket of various small vendors essentially flipping PS3s with various Linux distros flourished, including offering the usual suite of tech support services that Sony didn't. There was even a black market for the gutted bluray drives, which were expensive, but useless in clusters.
PlayStation 3 cluster - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3_cluster
Meh, sure it was an operational loss for sony. But there's a slew of condintions so different from the ps3 to the steam machines that it's very hard to compare them. First of all, the Linux PS3 never actually worked. It was janky and required a ton of workarounds and hacks, not really a viable desktop PC. The famous calculation clusters were created by universities and technology enthusiasts. The processing units are too niche for day to day use, having virtually no consumer software for them.
Second, Sony got pushed into a higher cost of manufacture than planned because of a shortage of blurays and the rise in costs of their unique silicon manufacturing. Some say it was more than 100% over their expectations. And I still remember people in the gaming scenes complaining that it was too expensive.
Third, speaking of bluray, the ps3 was way too ambitious technologically speaking, to not be a good target for this type of scalping. First commercial bluray, first HDMI output, a "supercomputer for the living room" vision. If anything, it was the cheap bluray angle that drove scalping and shortages, not the OtherOS capabilities.
I still think it is an unfounded concern with the Steam Machine. Valve already said, it won't be sold at a loss. It has no specialized technological advancement in particular. It is a mid range entry PC at the most. Having worked with many IT teams and business acquisition teams, it is just not a very attractive proposal. It will be seen as a gaming toy. No exec wants to buy toys for employees.
Lotta small businesses out there.
Not enough to cause a shortage. As I said. No business will pay more than a couple hundred for a PC. If they need more juice, then the steam machine won't be it. It is more like an enthusiast or a content creator midlevel machine.
This definitely isn't true. Every company I've worked for has provided fairly expensive laptops. Really curious where you got the idea that businesses are universally so cheap they'd end up spending more long term because they bought absolute trash computers.
Way to take the comment out of context and build a strawman. I was reiterating something I said in more detail in a higher up comment. Companies do buy expensive laptops. I said so. Mind you, the steam machine is, emphatically, not a laptop.
I don't know what point you're making. Just because it's not a laptop doesn't mean many companies out there have some $200 limit on computers.
Nor do I know which point you are making. Because so far you're arguing about things I haven't said. Either you don't have the reading skills or are arguing in bad faith. And I extremely dislike wasting my time explaining myself to someone who is intentionally misleading just to be contrarian.
Yes, your inability to make a point makes everyone else terrible.
You are taking the comments too literal. If something is subsidized (which means cheaper than normal) and it is useful as a PC or PC parts, it will be vacuumed up by non-gamers as well.
You are technically correct about mega corps and such but missing the point being made. Every subsidized PC not bought by gamers is lost money for Valve.
Megacorps won't sit and refresh Steam sure, but fucking scalpers absolutely will. There are lots of shady middlemen companies that will buy them up from eBay and resell to small businesses too.
Hell, I'd snap one up and resell on eBay in a heart beat myself if this thing goes for anything close to what a PS5 sells for. Let's say $1200 in parts, I buy for $700, I resell for $900, reseller scoops up a few hundred at a time off ebay, sells in bulk to small businesses for $1100... Everyone wins... Valve fucking loses. Now, let's say a million people do the same thing because it is free money.
This is how this works and why they can't subsidise this thing like Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft have. (Also why Xbox doesn't run actual windows for that matter.)