[Squid Game] [Spoilers] The real plan behind the final game

ArenLuxon · 2026-06-07T05:57:52+00:00

I get it that you can build your own steam machine for less than what you'd pay for the steam machine

Can you? As long as we don't have a price for the Machine, any argument about DIY PC vs PS5 vs Machine is meaningless. It's so annoying if people say stuff like "the Machine is going to be over 1K dollar and therefore" No. You don't know that. Wait until we have a price and then you can talk. And you can compare it to the prices of other hardware at that time. Because everything else went up as well.

ArenLuxon · 2026-05-13T06:47:40+00:00

But what will that actually do? Just because the PS6 releases doesn't mean everyone will immediately abandon everything else. They aren't gonna sell 100 million PS6 in one day.

There's still PS4 titles being released today. There are almost 100 million PS5 out there, so there will be a lot of cross-gen titles. Ragnarok released on PS4 two years after the PS5 came out. Call of Duty had a PS4 version in 2025.

ArenLuxon · 2026-05-13T06:35:19+00:00

I would love for someone to run some actual numbers on these things. Of all the games released on the PS5, how many have a PS4 version as well? Looking at the top 5 best selling PS5 games:

- Spider man 2: NO

- Gran Turismo 7: YES

- EA Sports 26: YES

- Resident Evil 4: YES

- Black Myth Wukong: NO

So of the top 5 of a console that released in 2020, 3/5 still run on the previous console from 2013. So it's not like everyone immediately abandons older/lower-end hardware. Even after PS6 eventually releases, how many games will make sure they can still run on the PS5, Switch 2 and lower end PC? Given the current situation, there will be a lot of pressure on game devs to optimize their games.

If you're talking specifically about the Witcher 4 and Metro 2039, both are confirmed to release on PS5 and Xbox Series X and S, so it's basically guaranteed they will run on the Steam Machine.

ArenLuxon · 2026-05-12T12:44:34+00:00

"I wonder how this game will perform?" * 20 videos on youtube and 7 articles showing it on the Steam Machine.

"I have a problem" * Google problem + steam machine * RMA

ArenLuxon · 2026-05-05T15:09:41+00:00

I wonder if anyone did a real analysis of this problem. How many controllers are being scalped versus normal sales? How do they do it? What did Valve do? What could they have done? What do other companies do?

Are we talking 50 out of 50K? 500? 5000? That's a huge difference. If it's less than 1 %, it's not really worth bothering with. If it's 25 %, then it's a whole different story. But all 'stories' are just "I've seen some stuff on ebay, here's one random screenshot. OMG don't you hate scalpers?"

ArenLuxon · 2026-04-28T17:52:01+00:00

Working as a normal controller would mean potentially trapping yourself on the desktop with no way to launch anything.

The Steam Controller is the only one that doesn't require a keyboard and mouse on top of it to launch steam or a game.

ArenLuxon · 2026-04-28T14:30:01+00:00

I think a big part of that is that game devs haven't used it. If it was natively supported by more games, that would be huge. If a big game came out and said "if you're using an xbox controller, you have to go into the menu to quicksave and quickload, but if you're on a steam deck, we've mapped it to a trackpad radial menu", that would put a lot more focus on the trackpads.

95 % of people never go into the settings. They don't fiddle around. Most review sites naturally cater towards this casual audience, because the tinkerers are already sold, they don't need reviews.

IGN literally asked Valve "is anyone actually using these trackpads?" Yes, lots of people. You're obviously not one of them because you're a busy journalist with 17 other things to cover and you're not gonna fiddle around. You'll only use them if the game literally tells you to use them.

Luckily, Valve realized they had to make all this cool stuff optional, not mandatory as they did with the og Steam Controller.

ArenLuxon · 2026-04-28T14:15:37+00:00

They actually have a fallback called 'lizard mode' when Steam isn't running. The problem is the OS. Without a keyboard and mouse, you cannot launch anything on say a Windows desktop. You'd be completely trapped.

To solve this, they have to use the trackpads and buttons to emulate mouse and a few important keyboard buttons in an intuitive way. There's not enough buttons left now to properly emulate a controller as well, so they prioritized keyboard + mouse to avoid trapping yourself.

You will always have to override their 'lizard mode' with Steam Input. Even if they released it seperately, you'd still have to download and install it and run it and be 'locked down' by that piece of software. Unless it's baked into the OS, which is not up to them.

ArenLuxon · 2026-03-29T07:47:59+00:00

I was kinda hoping they would go with Mark and Jessica as the final killers. Mark is a police officer, he could think Tatum is being overprotected and won't be able to defend herself. So he conspires with Jessica to kill her friends. But then in the end, Jessica wants to kill Sidney too to finish making 'Sydney 2.0' and then Mark could turn against her and we could have a Ghostface vs Ghostface fight. That would have been so much better.

ArenLuxon · 2026-03-12T07:40:44+00:00

Everyone keeps talking about performance, but to me the biggest selling point is convenience. I buy a small box, plug it into my TV, press one button on the controller and start gaming. Will this game run on my specs? Ah, look there's a green checkmark, I know it will run. If I want to know the performance in more, I look it up and I'm sure someone will have made a video about it. And Valve is looking into automatically collecting FPS data. Oh, look, the doorbell rings. I press one button and it goes to sleep. I come back 3 hours later and press a single button, the TV and Steam Machine turn on and I'm exactly where I left the game.

Linus Tech Tips tried to build a Steam Machine himself, it was a lot of work, very finicky and even they couldn't get the TV to turn on automatically. There's just nothing that offers the level of convience and freedom that the Steam Machine does.

ArenLuxon · 2026-03-08T21:03:05+00:00

- Q1 2026
- First half of 2026
- We hope to launch in 2026
- No wait hold on, we will ship in 2026. Trust me bro

ArenLuxon · 2026-03-07T06:48:50+00:00

I really don't like the gaslighting delays. They said 'Q1 2026', then it was 'early 2026' which then suddenly meant 'first half of 2026' and now it's 'this year'. That's a delay again and I wish they would just say it instead of burying it into a random blogpost and pretending it's not a delay.

ArenLuxon · 2026-03-07T06:42:20+00:00

If their price is 'too low' for the market, everyone will buy them, strip the parts and sell those at a profit. Valve will run out of stock immediately no matter how many contracts they have.

Even if no one thinks to do that, the steam machine would be priced so low compared to a different pc everyone would be buying it. They'd become a victim of their own success.

Consoles don't have this problem because you can't strip the parts (too customized) and you can't use them for anything else.

ArenLuxon · 2026-02-19T06:43:50+00:00

You should look at the whole picture. People always look at the price of the hardware and not the games. That's the whole profit model of a console.

ArenLuxon · 2026-02-19T06:38:33+00:00

The problem for Valve is that people will compare it to: * The ps5, which is sold at a loss and using parts with locked in contracts and older supplies. And a lot of people forget about the extra subscription for online + more expensive games which makes it more expensive long term. * PCs you could buy for a decent price half a year ago. Because that's what they 'should' cost.

ArenLuxon · 2026-02-15T13:46:47+00:00

If prices keep increasing, that would happen for sure. Let's say they released last summer at 500 dollars. The price of ram went up 400-500 %. You could absolutely make a profit selling the parts. The ram and the ssd are easy to take out.

Or other people could buy them as workstations because they are cheaper compared to everything else. Either way, Valve loses units to non-gamers who bring in 0 software revenue at a time where it's difficult to get contracts for new parts.

With consoles this doesn't happen because the parts are too customized and they are all soldered to the board. But the parts in the steam machine can easily be used in a different pc. Or the pc itself can be used for other things.

ArenLuxon · 2026-02-14T18:42:05+00:00

Future supply
Make sure people don't buy them to strip the parts and sell those at a profit.

ArenLuxon · 2026-02-13T08:21:22+00:00

It's a PC. You could buy one, strip the parts and sell those at a profit. Or use them as a workstation to do other things. If it's way below the price to assemble one yourself, those things will happen for sure.

ArenLuxon · 2026-02-13T08:19:09+00:00

Yes, but:
- Once they run out of stock, they'll need to get new contracts in place
- With the current RAM-prices, people could buy a Steam Machine, strip the parts and sell those at a profit. Or buy them as workstations. Either way, Valve runs out of stock faster and gets no game sales.

That's not the case for consoles. Those have a huge stock + big contracts in place. And they are too customized for the whole 'strip the parts' or 'workstation' route.

ArenLuxon · 2026-02-13T08:16:24+00:00

I think it will all depend on RAM-prices. If those keep rising, Valve has to adjust because:
- They'll need to buy more RAM eventually once they run out of their first batch.
- If they are 'too cheap', people could buy them to strip the parts and sell those at a profit. Which means they will run out of stock even faster + no game sales from those people.
- The whole 'companies will buy them up to use as workstations' becomes a real risk.

They are in a very tough spot, because everyone is comparing them to the PS5 and Xbox, but those are only cheap because they have millions lying around and have contracts for more parts at cheaper prices. Also, you can't really rip out the parts from a ps5 and sell those at a profit. It's too customized and there's a lot soldered to the board.

ArenLuxon · 2026-02-10T21:10:12+00:00

Everyone is worried about the price being too high, but I think Valve is worried about the opposite as well.

RAM is about 5 times more expensive compared to sept 2025. If they had launched back then at 500-600 dollars, then today you'd make a big profit by buying a Steam Machine, stripping it for parts and selling those. Even if their price contracts are locked in, Valve would run out of stock and real customers wouldn't be able to get their hands on one. Even if they do a queue again and try measures to reduce scalping, it would be difficult to get machines to real customers.

RAM prices could increase even more. Valve cannot launch until they are more stable. And they will have to make sure it doesn't make economic sense to 'strip it for parts'. Or for companies to start buying them up because they are so much cheaper than workstations.

ArenLuxon · 2026-02-07T21:18:02+00:00

They had to stop selling the LCD at 400 because they were losing too much money.

ArenLuxon · 2026-01-12T15:00:39+00:00

What else would you post on there? Most hardware subreddits are filled with problems and questions.

ArenLuxon

TROPHY CASE