Comment on Some speculation on the Steam Controller and scalpers
SoloCritical@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Am I fucking crazy or is 35000 controllers like a shockingly low amount of controllers??? There’s like 300+ million ppl in the states and I imagine there’s probably more than 35k people in my state alone that want one… what is actually up with that small number??
I think it’s important to remember that the last steam controller did not do well financially. It’s very likely that this is a first run to test the waters a bit with actual orders before ordering 2 million controllers where 90% end up in warehouses.
Also we know that they’ve been struggling with manufacturing and everything overseas is completely fucked right now. Could be that the wanted to get something out the door now vs indefinitely waiting longer.
Yeah true enough, it’s just super frustrating being one of the people that wanted one to see it sell out almost instantly… THEN to see scalpers selling it for $250 smfh. I can’t wait for another batch to drop.
Unlike some comments here, I don’t think this is a “test run.” Valve just doesn’t like to sit on inventory. Where most companies let some stock build up before opening the flood gates, Valve just puts a product up for sale when the first shipping container comes out of the factory. Many customers end up feeling left out if they can’t make the first wave, but technically the majority of customers get the product earlier than they otherwise would have, so I’m sure Valve sees it as a win-win.
We’ll probably see a steady supply of similar batches for a while. The Deck preorders shipped much the same way.
Yeah, people in general seem to not understand that stock sitting in a warehouse = you burning money to pay for renting that warehouse, or space in that warehouse.
You have to be… mega-giant huge, your own logistiscs system, for that to basically not be the case, you have to be Amazon, Walmart, something like that.
Even then, that factor still exists, its just mitigated by the overwhelming scale.
And actually, with… oil/gas basically now permanently notched up to another tier, even in the best case scenario… this pressure just gets worse.
Also, even before the Deck, the Index was basically the same way.
Yeah, I work at a plant where this is an ongoing concern. If we overstock product, we have to rent trailers to store the excess. The price works out to about $12 per pallet per month. It’s not much, but it’s also not nothing, and if we were in a more urban area, I could see that price quickly getting higher.
Yep, you got it.
And yep, high property value areas?
Yep, gets worse fast.
You end using something along the lines of an overflow lot, and that overflow lot probably doesn’t have the same level of access, security, reliable climate control, etc.
How many people do you think really want a steam controller? It costs more than an xbox or ps5 factory controller. TMR isn’t unique to the steam controller, the ps4/5 controllers have a trackpad for basic navigating the desktop on a couch, and you can only use it with steam games. (GN review) For any normal person there’s very little reason to get it over the myriad of other great controllers out there.
Valve themselves even said they’re targeting a niche.
Part of it is just a genuine gamble.
You can try to model demand for a kind of thing that has never specifically existed before.
You will probably fuck that up at first.
Early signs point to -> they significantly underestimated demand.
By how much exactly… shrug?
there’s basically no way you can find no difference between the trackpads on the Steam Controller, and the trackpad on the PS controllers
Never said there’s no difference, just that it’s good enough to navigate the desktop on a couch.
Does a PS 4/5 allow you to fully remap all the controls of a game to literally whatever you want?
Not natively, but they’re a normal directinput device so there’s plenty of software out there to do it. Plus steam input for steam games.
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 days ago
Valve doesn’t have the scale.
They’re nowhere near as big of companies as Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony.
They retooled the place that was making Steam Decks… into being the place that makes Steam Controllers.
Because that would be more affordable than renting out and kitting out an entirely new production somewhere near Shenzen or whatever.
They’re not big enough to get first dibs, preferential contract bulk pricing, from component manufacturers.
In the ocean they’re swimming in?
They’re bass or salmon, compared to dolphins, sharks, orcas.
I made a joke about this being an ‘artisinal, small batch’ controller in another thread, but it basicslly isn’t a joke, if you understand the scales involved.
zqps@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
The number of employees is pretty meaningless in this context, and it’s telling that is the only metric you cite. The number of active users would be far more meaningful.
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 days ago
Oh its telling of me, huh?
Tell me you’ve never worked in an industry that made or moved actual things without telling me you’ve never worked in an industry that made or moved actual things.
Active number of users on servers you are paying someone else to physically operate and maintain has nothing to do with orchestrating an international manufacturing and shipping program.
Its an entirely different animal.
zqps@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
Yeah because that’s not totally something you can outsource just as easily.
You’re arguing as if Valve is a logistics company.