Because a PC enthusiast is more likely to build their own and it’s too expensive for a non-enthusiast. The Steam Deck was as popular as it was because of the price.

The Deck was available and at a decent price for years. But you’re right, every one they made did get eventually get sold until the new and “improved price” versions came out.

No surprise there, there are plenty of people with expendable income that will want Valve’s newest thing. But even their biggest success, the Steam Deck, only managed around 5 million sales at a reasonable price. The Steam Machine is doubly niche at that price.

Physical is never more expensive than digital in the US, anyway, unless it’s some kind of rare printing.

Correct. The PS6 will not have physical discs at all. It’s probably the very reason they’re doing this.

Especially with today’s prices. Nobody cares about the poors, it’s all, “Who cares, I haven’t bought physical in years!”

Well, some limits, but much less than any legitimate alternative.

Yup, especially once they start putting out their heavy hitter franchises.

“Paying more up front for PC is the only thing that makes sense” for me, specifically. For others it would vary. I was thinking the other day of what I would recommend to a person who isn’t tech-savvy, has no gaming hardware, is on a budget, and wants to get into gaming on a TV. Oddly, the Switch 2 seems like the best cost to performance ratio right now.

Cartridges aren’t dead yet.

How are they a monopoly when you can buy most of the games on Steam elsewhere if you want? Most people just choose not to.

I’m assuming Steam’s shotgun is the Steam Machine price? Not shotgun-worthy at all. They’ll make money regardless of how it does.

I’ve always had computers to play games on, but consoles have also always been my primary gaming hardware. The additional cost of PC hardware, as well as having to constantly tinker and upgrade parts to be able to run the latest games, was the main reason. But now that consoles are doing away with the used market and also no longer have significantly cheaper hardware, Paying more up front for PC is the only thing that makes sense.

I guess we’ll see just how much the market can take.

This is what I’ll be doing after this gen.

They’ve decided that the lost sales from removing physical will be made up by having absolute control of all sales.

You can play the games on a computer without giving the companies money…