Comment on Steam Frame Release

cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

• NGram@piefed.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Imo the lottery is the most fair way of doing it. Instead of people being lucky to be awake/available right as the announcement dropped, everyone has the same chance of being placed early in the queue.

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  • cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    The lottery is fine, it’s the fact it’s even necessary I abhor.

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• Chronographs@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Would you rather their entire stock gets bought up by bots to be scalped?

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  • cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    No, I’d love there to be enough supply for the vast majority of prospective buyers.

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    • ExperiencedWinter@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      I don’t understand this comment at all… Surely valve would also want to have enough supply for every single person who wants one to give them their money. But we live in the real world with real material and logistical constraints, so isn’t the lottery the best solution to getting the limited devices in the hands of people who actually want to use it?

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• rtxn@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Please suggest an alternative that prevents scalping and doesn’t only favor the specific demographic that you are in.

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  • Linktank@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Certainly the device could register to a specific account and notify them if/when a different primary account takes control. If I’ve been playing steam games for 20 years using the same account I should be able to be verified as doing that and order hardware without them being concerned about scalping, especially if the hardware will only work if my account is the primary one allowed to use it.

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    • teslekova@lemmy.ml ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      So this destroys one’s ability to easily resell the thing. Great.

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  • cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Oh no, the lottery is the most fair way to deal with expected demand far exceeding supply, no question about that.

    I just long for a time when there was enough supply right from the start. I can’t remember having to queue or wait weeks for sought-after electronics in my youth. I don’t even blame Valve here, it seems to be more common everywhere now.

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    • rtxn@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Even if we ignore the silicon shortage, it doesn’t make sense for Valve to set up the facilities and supply chains to fully satisfy the day-one demand, only to shut them down months later when the demand falls off and no longer justifies the expense of operating them. The up-front cost of setting up additional factories, especially for the custom high precision optics, would be a massive waste. The other option would be to build up a larger stockpile before the product is released, but then you’d still be waiting all the same.

      In terms of hardware, Valve is not a significant player. They sell niche products meant for enthusiasts, and the lottery is the most pragmatic way to get them into hands.

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    • IamSparticles@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Are you old enough to remember the retail shortages of gaming consoles when they released in the 90s? People were scalping them out of car trunks back then.

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• arudesalad@piefed.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  I tried to pre order a zelda anniversary and was too busy and ended up trying to buy it an hour after orders opened and I couldn’t buy it (unless I paid 2x the price on ebay). Lottery is the much better way to do preorders.

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  • cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Or, you know, producing enough to meet demand from the start. People have gotten so used to sought after items being in short supply, the thought that companies can actually gauge demand quite well and could produce enough stock doesn’t even cross their mind anymore.

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    • psx_crab@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      I feels like you’re underestimated the word “enough” here. It’s a niche product, no one know what’s the actual demand vs scalper, and certainly no one can know what amount is “enough”.

      Also ram is hard to get.

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