Most of the business models that enable subsidized pricing for consumer products, on the other hand rely on artificially restricting how people can use those products, which is shitty and abusive.
Which they agree with, that’s kind of the point though, unfortunately the customer see’s the PS5 for 600, and the steam machine for 1000+, and assume steam is the one doing something unethical, when the reality is valve is literally selling a PC. that you are allowed to install windows or a different linux distro on… play games from GOG or whatever on etc… which means valve has to make a bit of profit or at least break even in order not to be bankrupted by people buying a bunch of steam machines and no games.
the customer see’s the PS5 for 600, and the steam machine for 1000+, and assume steam is the one doing something unethical
Do they? I don’t automatically assume there’s anything unethical about the more expensive option in any other product category. The PS5 itself costs more than an XBox Series S, probably not because Microsoft is morally superior to Sony.
Can’t say I’ve seen much discussion on steam boxes, but generally speaking when hearing non techie people talk about phones etc… when people see a less expensive option with marginally comparable features, they tend to conclude the expensive one is just charging more to squeeze the most out of them… unless it’s apple.
Which they agree with, that’s kind of the point though, unfortunately the customer see’s the PS5 for 600, and the steam machine for 1000+, and assume steam is the one doing something unethical, when the reality is valve is literally selling a PC. that you are allowed to install windows or a different linux distro on… play games from GOG or whatever on etc… which means valve has to make a bit of profit or at least break even in order not to be bankrupted by people buying a bunch of steam machines and no games.
Do they? I don’t automatically assume there’s anything unethical about the more expensive option in any other product category. The PS5 itself costs more than an XBox Series S, probably not because Microsoft is morally superior to Sony.
Can’t say I’ve seen much discussion on steam boxes, but generally speaking when hearing non techie people talk about phones etc… when people see a less expensive option with marginally comparable features, they tend to conclude the expensive one is just charging more to squeeze the most out of them… unless it’s apple.