Guys, it is literally just a small form factor PC (with a couple of console QoL additions like waking from controller support and HDMI CEC). It’s an open platform.
If Valve sold it at a loss, offices and governments would buy them up and reimage them with Windows.
Sony and MS can only get away with making a loss because the closed platform guarantees they make money back on game sales.
Part of the reason the PS3 got more locked down after release is that governments, researchers, and companies openly talked about buying them and running custom software on it, because the hardware was so subsidised.
That said, this is a low end device for 2026, make no mistakes of that. If Valve want to, they can sell this for $500. Perhaps even lower if they’re fine with razor thin margins.
Remember that this thing’s price needs to be justifiable not only now, but also in 2 years or so when vastly more powerful consoles come out.
I’m surprised anybody thought it could be.
Guys, it is literally just a small form factor PC (with a couple of console QoL additions like waking from controller support and HDMI CEC). It’s an open platform.
If Valve sold it at a loss, offices and governments would buy them up and reimage them with Windows.
Sony and MS can only get away with making a loss because the closed platform guarantees they make money back on game sales.
Part of the reason the PS3 got more locked down after release is that governments, researchers, and companies openly talked about buying them and running custom software on it, because the hardware was so subsidised.
That said, this is a low end device for 2026, make no mistakes of that. If Valve want to, they can sell this for $500. Perhaps even lower if they’re fine with razor thin margins.
Remember that this thing’s price needs to be justifiable not only now, but also in 2 years or so when vastly more powerful consoles come out.