Not a good one, that’s for sure. Should’ve just eaten the losses and cancelled it, or sold it at a big loss since they make money off every game it plays.
The problem with valve subsidizing it, is that it will make it an attractive choice to those that are not buying it for gaming on steam. After all, it is still just a pc. You can literally do some real work there unlike a console. It may even fall into a company that provides pc leasing service if they are cheaper than some dell or HP or any other mid spec pre-built.
The other problem with subsizing it is that Valve is currently in a price fixing lawsuit and selling a new product for a huge loss probably wouldn’t look great for them.
This reminds me of the early PS3 days where some universities would buy loads of consoles, because the Cell processor was a great bang for its buck (thanks to Sony subsidising them) and they’d just jailbreak them and put them in data centres.
The hardware is terribly overpriced for a work pc. There are many far superior work desktops for far cheaper.
Read. The issue is if they are subsidized
Even if subsidised they would still be terrible as a work machine lol. The hardware is not good. Work machines are almost always i7s at a minimum.
Remember that these machines are neutered to keep under a tiny power draw.
Is it? Or is that an advantage for office? Where people only need a browser, ms office suite, and probably adobe pdf. Heck, I bet software development work can be done there. Some light CAD (emphasis on light), and maybe even some graphic design work (not video editing tho). Office also cares about efficiency and with the right consumer it is appealing to have 150-200W power sip compared to 200-350W when you install 50-100s of them.
If people only need a browser and office suite and adobe, a $200 computer will do that just as well. No need to spend USD$1000.
There is basically no use case for this machine at the price that it is.
Do you even read the premise? The premise is that if they are subsidized. So imagine the same spec for 500-600
Let’s just hope it sells out. More Linux users is good.
Honestly, the wave of system integrator and people making SFF build to compete with steam machine already puts steam at the advantage. They already released SteamOS for every other desktop, that means system integrator and pre built can also make SFF with console like experience