can steam deck come to store's?

[musicshootout198]

okay this is kinda strange to ask but hear me out, now yes i know i can only purchase like here but is it possible to ever see this in store's such as walmart, target, best buy etc? cause i wouldn't purchase that physically

[Haruspex]

I think Valve's plans are much bigger for the Steam Deck than for their previous hardware efforts. If they can get production ramped up enough, we're talking millions of units put out there. This isn't supposed to be some niche gizmo for people who already use Steam, this is a direct effort to expand the Steam user base, and that means getting it in the hands of people who aren't already here.

I think we can expect it to be on store shelves as well as available at major online retailers at some point. That point is whenever they can ramp production up high enough to get ahead of demand. Right now they sell faster than they can make them. There's a year+ long wait list.

[musicshootout198]

8bitbeard님이 먼저 게시:

I think Valve's plans are much bigger for the Steam Deck than for their previous hardware efforts. If they can get production ramped up enough, we're talking millions of units put out there. This isn't supposed to be some niche gizmo for people who already use Steam, this is a direct effort to expand the Steam user base, and that means getting it in the hands of people who aren't already here.

I think we can expect it to be on store shelves as well as available at major online retailers at some point. That point is whenever they can ramp production up high enough to get ahead of demand. Right now they sell faster than they can make them. There's a year+ long wait list.

so you're saying it would be a maybe but in the future? cause like i said before i wouldn't purchase it in store

[Haruspex]

musicshootout198님이 먼저 게시:

so you're saying it would be a maybe but in the future? cause like i said before i wouldn't purchase it in store

It's dependent on the supply chain and their production capacity, and probably whether or not demand through Steam stays high. I'm saying probably, and certainly in the future. Late 2023 at the absolute soonest.

[musicshootout198]

8bitbeard님이 먼저 게시:

musicshootout198님이 먼저 게시:

so you're saying it would be a maybe but in the future? cause like i said before i wouldn't purchase it in store

It's dependent on the supply chain and their production capacity, and probably whether or not demand through Steam stays high. I'm saying probably, and certainly in the future. Late 2023 at the absolute soonest.

guess it make sense

[WhitePhantom]

8bitbeard님이 먼저 게시:

There's a year+ long wait list.

That was true until recently when they ramped up their production speed. You can still reserve a Deck and get it this year within 4 months. Estimated of course, but everyone who already had an order should get it this year with space for more orders to get in on time.

[TristanMike]

Sure, I mean, they partnered with companies to sell the Steam Machines and also the Steam Controller outside of the US. At the time, they didn't have logistics for Canada so you couldn't buy the controller on the Steam store, I had to get mine from EB Games (at the time, now Gamestop).

That said, now that they do have their supply chain figured out, why would they bother? I'm sure people (read dumb parents) would be confused on what it actually is and does. For instance, they would probably (and somewhat rightfully so) think that it would play all games, which of course it doesn't. The reasons might be hard to communicate to the dumb uninformed customer at a point of retail, whereas on here they can communicate that before you even buy it.

[Cathulhu]

Valve didn't manufacture any of the Steam machines. Those were all made by third party companies. Valve only provided the SteamOS that ran on those.

[TristanMike]

Cathulhu님이 먼저 게시:

Valve didn't manufacture any of the Steam machines. Those were all made by third party companies. Valve only provided the SteamOS that ran on those.

I know, I never said they did. I said they partnered with other companies to sell them as opposed to selling themselves.

[wuddih]

not very likely that it will end up in stores, especially where Valve already ships to.

they partnered with EB/GS/GUK for Controller and Link, as those low-price items are way harder to subsidize the shipping costs for. Controller and Link are discontinued since years but depending on the country you may find the Index at those stores but thats about it atm.

[Beardy]

Not before it comes to my door!

Steam has no need to sell their products in stores (other than gift cards for other reasons) cause the market Steam has, that is to say it's base of potential customers, is SEVERAL times larger than any brick and mortar store. Steam is internationally massive.

Also steam is being VERY VERY generous with their pricing. Store prices would have to be higher than Steam's prices just to make sense of the logistics. So walking in to walmart and buying $600 in steam cards and getting one through Steam would cost significantly less than buying the one sitting on the shelf.

I think you're more likely to see other known smaller manufactures filling that gap with things like the win600 and better.

BUT!!! Once I get mine None of it matters to me

[Haruspex]

TristanMike님이 먼저 게시:

Sure, I mean, they partnered with companies to sell the Steam Machines and also the Steam Controller outside of the US. At the time, they didn't have logistics for Canada so you couldn't buy the controller on the Steam store, I had to get mine from EB Games (at the time, now Gamestop).

That said, now that they do have their supply chain figured out, why would they bother? I'm sure people (read dumb parents) would be confused on what it actually is and does. For instance, they would probably (and somewhat rightfully so) think that it would play all games, which of course it doesn't. The reasons might be hard to communicate to the dumb uninformed customer at a point of retail, whereas on here they can communicate that before you even buy it.

I've thought about this actually. If they really do want to expand their user base with this, they should probably make sure the lowest common denominator (IE: Morons.) don't get utterly confused by it.

I think if the default Steam Deck interface is made absolutely idiot-proof, and the only games that show up in the store by default are those that are Steam Deck certified, it should be okay. Of course an opt-in should be there to toggle the viewing of non-certified games, and there's the desktop mode for power users. Basically let the average non-PC-gamer have a good experience by default when they open this this up on Christmas morning, and if they dig deeper into it than it allows by default, it's all on them. There are already over 4000 games that are certified and growing, so it's not like there's a lack of things to play.

Beardy님이 먼저 게시:

Not before it comes to my door!

Steam has no need to sell their products in stores (other than gift cards for other reasons) cause the market Steam has, that is to say it's base of potential customers, is SEVERAL times larger than any brick and mortar store. Steam is internationally massive.

Also steam is being VERY VERY generous with their pricing. Store prices would have to be higher than Steam's prices just to make sense of the logistics. So walking in to walmart and buying $600 in steam cards and getting one through Steam would cost significantly less than buying the one sitting on the shelf.

As I said before, this is an effort to expand the Steam user-base, and that means selling to people who don't currently use Steam. You can't sell to people who don't (yet) use Steam through Steam.

The Deck is very aggressively priced, yes, but costs for parts will continue to drop, and lower cost of manufacture makes 3rd party retailer distribution much more reasonable.

Don't worry. If you have your reserve in, I'm sure you'll get yours before they expand outward into other markets.

[Thermal Lance]

They cut the middleman keeping the cost low.

[steven1mac]

I wouldn't expect any of this generation of Steam Decks to be in stores, unless it was a prerequisite to sell in a certain region. If the sales are off the charts for the current generation, then there might be a chance for them to sell the next generation in stores.

[J4MESOX4D]

It's a real shame Valve don't have global production and distribution chains in place - even though it would be costly and the products would likely retail at a higher price due to margins, they'd have a far greater reach and more seamless supply chain where demand could be met quicker and the stresses of in-house fulfilment are gone. Less hassle and greater protection in returning items for the consumer too.

Valve are about 15 years behind when it comes to retail so I wouldn't expect any of their hardware to ever reach the shelf unless they are willing to go mainstream in the retail domain. They are well-established when it comes to hardware and have proven that they can sell huge quantities of stock that persistently outstrip the holdings so maybe it's time to invest in this aspect instead of a pre-order dictated production chain in dribbled quantities.

[Beardy]

8bitbeard님이 먼저 게시:

TristanMike님이 먼저 게시:

Sure, I mean, they partnered with companies to sell the Steam Machines and also the Steam Controller outside of the US. At the time, they didn't have logistics for Canada so you couldn't buy the controller on the Steam store, I had to get mine from EB Games (at the time, now Gamestop).

That said, now that they do have their supply chain figured out, why would they bother? I'm sure people (read dumb parents) would be confused on what it actually is and does. For instance, they would probably (and somewhat rightfully so) think that it would play all games, which of course it doesn't. The reasons might be hard to communicate to the dumb uninformed customer at a point of retail, whereas on here they can communicate that before you even buy it.

I've thought about this actually. If they really do want to expand their user base with this, they should probably make sure the lowest common denominator (IE: Morons.) don't get utterly confused by it.

I think if the default Steam Deck interface is made absolutely idiot-proof, and the only games that show up in the store by default are those that are Steam Deck certified, it should be okay. Of course an opt-in should be there to toggle the viewing of non-certified games, and there's the desktop mode for power users. Basically let the average non-PC-gamer have a good experience by default when they open this this up on Christmas morning, and if they dig deeper into it than it allows by default, it's all on them. There are already over 4000 games that are certified and growing, so it's not like there's a lack of things to play.

Beardy님이 먼저 게시:

Not before it comes to my door!

Steam has no need to sell their products in stores (other than gift cards for other reasons) cause the market Steam has, that is to say it's base of potential customers, is SEVERAL times larger than any brick and mortar store. Steam is internationally massive.

Also steam is being VERY VERY generous with their pricing. Store prices would have to be higher than Steam's prices just to make sense of the logistics. So walking in to walmart and buying $600 in steam cards and getting one through Steam would cost significantly less than buying the one sitting on the shelf.

As I said before, this is an effort to expand the Steam user-base, and that means selling to people who don't currently use Steam. You can't sell to people who don't (yet) use Steam through Steam.

The Deck is very aggressively priced, yes, but costs for parts will continue to drop, and lower cost of manufacture makes 3rd party retailer distribution much more reasonable.

Don't worry. If you have your reserve in, I'm sure you'll get yours before they expand outward into other markets.

Not worried, Mine will be here on monday by 8pm Via Fedex.

The "Selling to users that don't have steam" point is invalid. You would need a steam account just to use it. So regardless if they have one right now or not, they will need to get one BEFORE THEY EVEN GET A STEAM DECK. Steam accounts are free and there is literally Zero barrier to entry. So your argument makes no sense.

Also you have no evidence or even reason to suspect Valve has that in mind or would even want to. Why bother all the logistics when anyone can just buy gift cards, create a new account and buy a deck shipped to their door, all without a credit card. Cheaper than a store could sell it to you. Walmart isn't going to sell things at a loss. It would be marked up from what steam could sell it for. Severely cause there are logistics involved, many pockets would need filling before a single deck was put on a shelf, at a markup. It makes no sense. Simply having it on a shelf in a store CANNOT benefit Valve in any way.

As for your getting cheaper argument:

That is called economy of scale, and that only works when several companies are in competition creating THE SAME ITEM. All the parts that make the steam deck are already as cheap as they can be, economy of scale has already done it's job on the pricing of all the components.. That is of course, excluding the custom parts of their product. Like the PCB, the Case, the carrying case etc.. These cannot benefit from economy of scale due to them being exclusive to the steam deck.

The steam deck will not become cheaper for valve to produce in the future. In fact, after pre-sales are over, expect the price to go up.