Valve has an absurd amount of money, they could easily eat the loss if they wanted to.
Comment on Steam Deck is out of stock in the US?
Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 hours ago
Rampocalypse is to blame. They’re simply not manufacturing any more units until memory prices drop (since raising prices on the SD would be a PR nightmare and they wouldn’t be able to eat the margins without that).
PrinzKasper@feddit.org 16 hours ago
Fecundpossum@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
There’s a reason valve has an absurd amount of money.
dukemirage@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
Yes, having a quasi-monopoly on selling PC games online. They are constantly burning money.
LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 hours ago
And do they eat the loss on this quasi-monopoly, or do they make a healthy profit?
thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 16 hours ago
The goal of any business is not to eat the loss, if its not important for survival. The Steam Deck is not crucial for operation of their business. Compared to consoles where its their only income (usually) and they depend on the number of sold units. Also compared to consoles, Valve is not in a position where they heavily compete on price and need to bring it down to price of competition.
In short, there is no need for Valve to eat the cost. It’s already a good price too.
artyom@piefed.social 10 hours ago
Source?
lordnikon@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
Since its just the US only I think Tariffs might be to blame. Valve might be just waiting for another swing in the whims of the administration then bring another batch in. Valve can do that as they don’t have to worry about stock price tanking.
halcyoncmdr@piefed.social 16 hours ago
There are two tracks of thought here.
The US Tariffs are raising the cost too high. So US inventory is not being restocked.
The DRAM constraints are raising the cost to manufacture too high. That affects both the RAM and SSD in the system. This would affect all manufacturing of the Steam Deck.
As for it only being the US, they’re not going to be shifting international inventory after already situating it in more local distribution centers and dealing with customs. So the question comes down to, are the international stores/distribution centers still being restocked, or is everything on hold and the US just happens to be the first to sell out?