I get how it feels a bit negative but end of the day, after Valve’s statements there was a whole range of competition launched and nothing forces people to move faster than competition. So I think it is OK that they backtrack on what they said and launched a refresh earlier to retain market leadership.
Commercially for Valve, it also doesnt make sense to announce a launch earlier in this case as they will have a stock of LCD systems. Which they are already selling at steep discounts now to get rid of it.
For a “small” company like Valve, I guess having inventory of LCD steam decks is more painful than Nintendo or others.
If they announced earlier, they can watch LCD unit sales drop off and have a harder time to shift those units.
Seems fine to me, what they did.
Then note carefully Gabe said, he never said at a loss and following his statements, it can also be inferred that the 512GB model was not loss leading. So having a refresh here of the premium end may also be another revenue stream for them. As they were surprised that demand was for 512GB rather than 64GB.
Again, good commercial move and also great for consumers.
I get how it feels a bit negative but end of the day, after Valve’s statements there was a whole range of competition launched and nothing forces people to move faster than competition. So I think it is OK that they backtrack on what they said and launched a refresh earlier to retain market leadership.
Commercially for Valve, it also doesnt make sense to announce a launch earlier in this case as they will have a stock of LCD systems. Which they are already selling at steep discounts now to get rid of it.
For a “small” company like Valve, I guess having inventory of LCD steam decks is more painful than Nintendo or others.
If they announced earlier, they can watch LCD unit sales drop off and have a harder time to shift those units.
Seems fine to me, what they did.
Then note carefully Gabe said, he never said at a loss and following his statements, it can also be inferred that the 512GB model was not loss leading. So having a refresh here of the premium end may also be another revenue stream for them. As they were surprised that demand was for 512GB rather than 64GB.
Again, good commercial move and also great for consumers.