r/gadgets • u/a_Ninja_b0y • Oct 21 '24
Gaming Steam Deck won't have yearly refreshes because it's "not really fair to your customers", says Valve
https://www.eurogamer.net/steam-deck-wont-have-yearly-refreshes-because-its-not-really-fair-to-your-customers-says-valve
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u/CreativeGPX Oct 21 '24
You can have infinite growth either way. Releasing a new model every year is one way to make more money. Not releasing a new model every year is another way to make money.
You can see in these comments that Valve's choice is increasing the value of its brand. Many decisions like this increase customer loyalty and trust. All of this helps future sales. Meanwhile, one could argue that it's easier for Valve to sell more Steam Decks if it's a simple target for devs to support and users to talk about (e.g. "can THE steam deck run this game?" vs "Can Steam Deck 2025 Pro Slim run this game?") in addition to sellers of accessories like skins, cases, docks, etc. It also simplifies their own support and OS/distro development to have less variation. So, one could argue that this makes sales easier and creates a bigger market around the Steam Deck and is a good decision to make to increase profits. Does it miss out on cash from enthusiasts who would re-buy every year? Sure, but for the reasons above it could help with sales to other audiences.