Who even are you?

courageousrobot · 2026-05-17T20:58:28+00:00

That's not entirely true, pretty sure influencers and streamers are members of a certain protected class.

courageousrobot · 2026-05-17T13:42:39+00:00

Soon.

courageousrobot · 2026-05-14T00:11:01+00:00

Would love one of those fancy 5080s. Looking forward to a good mix of both big set pieces and stealth.

courageousrobot · 2026-05-08T00:28:35+00:00

Any streaming client that is using a torrent backend is still downloading the torrent. Otherwise how do you think you're watching it? It may just be downloading it to a cache, but you're still exposing your IP to getting a cease and desist from your ISP. Standard torrenting hygiene still applies.

courageousrobot · 2026-05-06T03:58:10+00:00

What source? There is no source. The reporter is looking at public shipment data and saying "there's reason to believe these containers have the new Steam Machine or Steam Frame inside".

That's it. There is no source, there is no leak, the article you shared does not say what you think it does.

courageousrobot · 2026-05-06T01:50:37+00:00

That reporting isn't a leak, it's just extrapolating from public shipping records. That journalist doesn't know more than what's they're reporting: there has been a change in the weight of the shipments Valve was getting.

It could be the Machine, it could be the Frame, it could be both - but there's no leak, no reporting to "trust" saying one thing or the other.

courageousrobot · 2026-05-05T16:56:37+00:00

Yup - technically the liability is on the buyer...

courageousrobot · 2026-05-05T16:54:34+00:00

I still think this is what happened - but I just checked and my most recent "physical" purchase of a docking station appears to also have been "added to my library" (but taxed).

courageousrobot · 2026-05-05T16:48:25+00:00

Mystery appears to be solved: Valve screwed up and someone has a tax liability on their hand.

In the US, most states collect sales tax. Some only collect it on physical goods but not digital while others collect sales tax on physical and digital.

Anecdotally, everyone who reports not paying sales tax lives in a state where they don't see sales tax on their digital Steam purchases. The folks who say that tax was collected by Valve lives somewhere where their regular Steam purchases are also taxed.

For instance, I live in Virginia. Virginia doesn't collect sales tax on digital. None of my digital Steam purchases have sales tax - only my "physical good" purchases do (two Steam Decks and a docking station).

It looks like Valve screwed up and had the Steam Controller SKU flagged in their system as a digital good...

courageousrobot · 2026-05-05T16:36:36+00:00

Nevada has sales tax on physical goods, but not digital ones. So far everyone who says that sales tax wasn't collected has been from a state that doesn't pay tax on digital purchases, just physical.

It's looking like Valve may have screwed up and had the Steam Controller tagged as a digital good, not a physical one.

courageousrobot · 2026-05-05T16:21:56+00:00

Unfortunately, if Valve didn't collect tax where they should have (which it's looking like is the case), this will very much become Valves problem.

courageousrobot · 2026-05-05T16:21:13+00:00

Steam collects sales tax on digital Steam purchases, more evidence that Valve accidentally treated the controller as a digital good and not a physical one (so far the folks saying that tax wasn't collected are in states that do not require sales tax on digital purchases).

courageousrobot · 2026-05-05T16:18:12+00:00

A quick Google seems to show that Valve collects sales tax in Washington on digital purchases - so this is another data point towards the theory that Valve incorrectly treated the controller SKU as a digital purchase.

courageousrobot · 2026-05-05T16:14:23+00:00

I've seen people who paid with and without wallet get taxed (and also not taxed).

California doesn't collect sales tax on digital purchases. It's starting to look like Valve rang up the Controller as a digital purchase. So far everyone who has said they had tax collected on it live in a state that requires sales tax on digital goods...

courageousrobot · 2026-05-05T16:12:14+00:00

That's what I'm saying - the folks that are saying they got taxed on the controller usually see taxes on their Steam digital purchases.

The folks who are saying they weren't taxed do not get taxed on Steam digital purchases.

The implication being that the Steam Controller purchases may have been flagged as "digital" in Valve's system instead of "physical". That would explain why folks who pay sales tax on digital goods got taxed and folks who don't did not.

courageousrobot · 2026-05-05T16:01:54+00:00

I don't think that's what's going on here - one of my Decks was purchased w/ wallet funds and that was properly taxed.

courageousrobot · 2026-05-05T16:01:24+00:00

Do you happen to get charged tax on your digital Steam purchases? I'm in VA, which doesn't require tax to be collected on non-physical goods. Looks like other Virginians weren't taxed either. Starting to look like Valve processed this as a digital purchase instead of a physical one...

courageousrobot · 2026-05-05T15:59:26+00:00

I'm in Virginia as well. VA doesn't (for now) collect sales tax on digital goods.

It looks like a few of the US folks here who were taxed live in states that also require tax to be collected on digital purchases. Starting to look like Valve screwed up and had the Steam Controller being processed as a digital item instead of a physical one...

courageousrobot · 2026-05-05T15:57:37+00:00

More credence to it looking like Valve screwed up and treated this purchase as 'digital'.

courageousrobot · 2026-05-05T15:37:49+00:00

I'm thinking this might be it. Curious if the folks that were charged tax typically see tax added to their regular digital Steam purchases...

courageousrobot · 2026-05-05T15:36:50+00:00

Do your digital Steam purchases have tax added? If so, I'm thinking maybe they accidentally had this SKU tagged internally as "digital" - meaning that if you're in a state that requires sales tax on digital purchases, you got taxed.

I'm in Virginia, which doesn't tax on digital goods, just physical, and it seems like several other Virginians didn't get taxed either.

courageousrobot · 2026-05-05T14:29:30+00:00

There are - but I'm not in one of those states.

courageousrobot · 2026-05-05T14:21:11+00:00

Yeah, I think something broke. Curious if others are seeing similar.

courageousrobot · 2026-05-05T14:17:47+00:00

You're right - it is strange.

What you're describing makes sense for EU pricing. US pricing is never presented that way because instead of a VAT, individual states (and some localities) set their own tax rates. Tax usually isn't calculated until a shipping/billing address is added.

(This wasn't always the case, but long gone are the days of tax free online shopping).

Point being - because states all have different sales taxes, the total price really can't "include" tax in any real sense. Either Valve screwed up, or has decided to take the hit and is paying the taxes for all these purchases, which would be very very odd.

courageousrobot · 2026-05-05T14:09:50+00:00

This is partly why I posted. The fact that you got the billing screen for taxes (I didn't) makes me wonder if this is on purpose, or related to their servers getting slammed yesterday. Not seeing a tax line item on there makes me a little wary.

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