Valve has defended its decision to price Steam hardware without taking a loss on each device, telling The Verge that subsidizing machines like the Steam Deck and the new Steam Machine would clash with the company’s view of how PC gaming should work.
In a statement to The Verge, Valve said it believes “open systems are better in the long run” for both the company and its customers. The company argued that the openness of the PC has helped drive hardware and software development because any developer or hardware maker can try to improve the platform.
Valve’s position is aimed squarely at the console model, where platform owners can sell hardware below cost and try to make the money back through software sales, platform fees, subscriptions, and other locked-in spending. Valve told The Verge that selling devices under cost for competitive advantage, or paying for exclusive content, helps build a more closed system where users have fewer choices about what software they run.
The company published a shorter version of the argument in its own Steam Machine launch post, according to John Gruber of Daring Fireball, but its statement to The Verge laid out the case more fully.
Valve’s line is that customers should not feel pushed into buying Valve hardware to play PC games. The company said its devices should sit alongside other gaming hardware, with buyers choosing based on price, performance, form factor, peripheral support, and other tradeoffs. That is the tidy version. The less tidy version is that Valve wants credit for refusing a subsidy model that has helped define dedicated game consoles for years.
Gruber, writing at Daring Fireball, argued that hardware subsidies are a strategic choice rather than an unavoidable requirement of gaming platforms. He singled out Microsoft, saying the company has used the practice as an excuse since the first Xbox and pointed to another Xbox price increase announced last week. His view: Valve deserves credit for selling its machines at what he called honest prices.
That praise comes with an awkward footnote. Gruber also noted that Valve recently raised Steam Deck prices by $250 to $300, citing higher RAM and storage costs. So Valve’s anti-subsidy stance does not mean cheap hardware. It means buyers see more of the cost at checkout instead of paying for it later through a tighter software funnel.
Gruber contrasted console subsidies with mobile phone promotions. In his telling, phone subsidies are usually handled by carriers rather than Apple, Samsung, or other device makers. Apple sells iPhones directly at full price, while carriers can offer deals such as a “$0” iPhone because they expect to recover the money through monthly service contracts.
That mechanism is different from the console gamble Gruber described. A PlayStation buyer does not sign a contract promising to buy a set number of games. Sony and Microsoft, under that model, depend on later spending from customers who buy software and services after the hardware sale. Valve is saying it does not want that bargain for PC hardware.
This story draws on original reporting from Daring Fireball.
