Why a bump to $700 could be a "death sentence" for the Steam Machine
After writing two November stories analyzing price expectations for Valve's upcoming Steam Machine, I really didn't think we'd be offering more informed speculation before the official price was revealed. Then Valve wrote a blog post this week noting that the "growing price of... critical components" like RAM and storage meant that "we must revisit our exact shipping schedule and pricing" for the living room-focused PC gaming box.
We don't know exactly what form that "revisiting" will take at the moment. Analysts who spoke to Ars were somewhat divided on how much of its quickly increasing component costs Valve would be willing (or forced) to pass on to consumers.
"We knew the component issue was bad," DFC Intelligence analyst David Cole told Ars. "It has just gotten worse. "
from Gaming - Ars Technica https://ift.tt/d8bFXI6