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Comment by miffy900 | Hacker News Reader

They can afford to make a big song and dance about this because chances are they are not selling the hardware at a loss and they have the regular steam store to offset the short term costs. If they were selling the hardware at a loss, I think their marketing trying to sell this device would be very different.

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they probably will handle it like with the Steam Deck

- no loss

- but small profit margin anyway, to max reduce the price, to max increase adoption/reach

for Valve people using Steam on non Windows platforms is more important then making a big buck from Steam Machines (because this makes them less dependent on Windows, MS has tried(and failed) to move into the direction of killing 3rd party app stores before, and Windows has gotten ... crappy/bloated/ad-infested which is in the end a existential risk for Valve because if everyone moves away from PC gaming they will lose out hugely)

Is Apple selling their hardware at a loss?

No, but I think the primary comparison is meant to be other major consoles (xbox, playstation, nintendo)

Sort of, maybe. I read it more as them assuring everyone that it's still a PC if a customer ends up wanting a plan B.

I know you are being rhetorical but for reference, of course not, their margin on hardware is 36%

Do we count socks and slings (Pocket™) as hardware?

Switch was always sold for more than component and manufacturing cost. PS4 crossed the threshold quickly (per Sony iirc?)

However, that ignores R&D costs which presumably have to be amortized, largely through game sales and platform fees. The same is true for other platforms like iOS.

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