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Scalpers are already selling the Steam Machine for over $3000 on eBay despite Valve's efforts
(www.tweaktown.com)
this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2026
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Just like for any product... Give me one awaited product that didn't get recked by scalpers.
Ps5, switch 2, ... Hell even ram...
When you have enough money, scarcity is easily created. What would you want ? To have businesses to have production lines that can handle release volume? What do you do with them after, when the demand is slowing, it's faaaaaaarrrr from free.
Agreed, the point is that this applies to launch windows specially, but afterwards it is a supply and demand problem. Scum scalpers manufacturing scarcity by buying stock. It affected the PS5 launch. 6 years later, the PS5 is everywhere in brick and mortar shops. I can go buy one right now, no problem, even online if I wanted. At official prices and through legitimate channels. The Switch 2 was available in my country on launch day, Nintendo has that kind of supply chain today. Valve's Steam Deck, 4 years later, I cannot buy it, nowhere. Valve won't sell it to me. If I go to eBay, any reseller will ship it to my doorstep right away. This is an indication that Valve's problem with hardware goes beyond typical scumbag scalping. They have a supply chain problem. It is because of OEM cartels and a lack of reputation as a hardware manufacturer, perhaps. But it is there. I have never seen Valve's hardware in person, and probably never will, unless I go to the resell market.
I see your point. It's evident valve don't have the production power of a Sony (even if they got absolutely destroyed for months for each release) or Nintendo.
I don't know if it's really a "problem" per se. They're a lot smaller as a hardware builder so they can't have the same infrastructures,I don't think the demand would be strong enough. But that certainly makes them an easier target for scalpers
They have repeatedly gone on record saying they always underestimated demand for their hardware. They said it for the Deck, for both controllers, and now for the Steam Machine. I wonder how much of that is due to being burned so badly by the original steam machines program and some sort of collective PTSD, or do they genuinely suck so much at marketing that they have no idea that people want real hardware competition in the gaming space. I know that market analysis is the hardest part of marketing. But underestimating demand for a decade straight? something's is off. It gives me flashbacks to when the Orange Box came out and it was sold out almost immediately to become one of PC game most culturally influential contribution to the internet. Yet they were so slow to order reprints (they were knee deep in rolling out Steam Store). It's like they have zero confidence on their own products.