I love you, I truly do. You created a device that was just objectively better and had to have cost more money to make but didnt raise the price a single penny, in fact you even lowered the price. I don’t think anyone understands how unheard of that is in the tech and gaming industry and it’s obviously because they know we’re gonna spend twice as much on games for the deck, but valve still kept the prices the same. I cannot wait to see what you have in store for this devices next iteration but I can say, please feel free to take your time with it and understand that as long as you continue this respect and care for your fan base we will always support and contribute to your company, thank you from gamers everywhere(except Australia, hopefully you can work on that lol) Thank you Valve! Cant wait for my oled steam deck to come in!
It’s the tried and true loss leader business strategy where a company trying to enter a market takes a large financial hit to build marketshare. A huge sum of video game spending in the world has shifted from large gaming boxes (consoles) to mobile. This is evidenced by the massive success of Nintendo Switch in Japan, and Sony’s own tepid performance with PS5 in its home country.
I do like that Valve built a compatibility layer in Linux to achieve their goals here. If you can build products that actively deconstruct another company’s foothold in a market, you’re flooding the market with new competition, which is the only way free market systems can benefit consumers.
With that said, probably shouldn’t love corporations in the same way you shouldn’t love a sociopath.