> Some compromises have to be made in the AI-driven future.

Shareholders looking at employees "You are sacrifices we are willing to make."

Hello, I would like to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in your company

I have not, please tell me more.

Well hey, at least these systems also consume massive amounts of electricity either raising your electric bill or your gas bill depending on how they decide to power the data center. Nothing like a 30% increase in your power bill because your local county commissioners got a sweet $300k campaign donation from a foreign billionaire.

And of course if they burn natural gas for their power you get polluted air from your neighbors.

Wow, I bought a 128GB Strix Halo machine for $2000 USD in September. Same model is currently on special for $4,399. Insane.

I'm used to this happening with retro collecting but not with things being actively produced

This feels like a sign of something very bad happening soon

Now imagine TSMC being controlled by China. While I think it's fairly low probability, the imagination does create some pretty dystopian scenarios.

Don't forget that this is all intentional and by design. If the tech oligarchs have their way we will all have no choice but to rent compute by the token within the next 3-5 years. The era of the personal computer is over. Current supply chains & production capacity can't accomodate both the AI hyperscalers and regular consumers.

China already figured out RAM and SSD chips manufacturing. Even Apple wanted to make a deal with YMTC and CXMT:

https://www.techradar.com/pro/is-apple-set-to-turn-to-china-...

Both were struck by US sanctions.

By <redacted>, you mean the USA and Israel? I guess you don't just mean the USA, or you wouldn't have redacted it. Or maybe you mean capitalism?

Save us with their cheap labor and worse working conditions? Damn, if only we were more like China we wouldn't so dependent on them...

I really can't see the Steam Machine being a success at this point, if it ever even releases. It seems like they were really banking on hardware steadily getting cheaper like it pretty much always has in the past. A $1000+ Steam Machine makes the PS5 look like a good deal even after the price increases.

That was my first thought, there is no way they are going to hit that console price point anytime soon... so they can either release now at a price that reflects the reality of the market, or hold on even longer hoping for a near-term miracle. If they wait too long, they risk not being a good value due to aged hardware.

The console price point will go up too and set different expectations.

Its not unless its subsidised which valve may chose to do given that the enthusiast PC marked is crashing, which in time will eat some of their growth.

I'd be interested in a bare bones version. That way I could shop for RAM and an SSD myself.

It won't, but that's an arbitrary number, and due to the sudden spike of inflation, $2000 is the new $1000. Yes your wage just got cut in half and you didn't notice.

Yeah, in this climate that won't be happening.

...no OLED screen?

I'm grasping at very few straws here...

Like high gas prices leading to sudden releases of fuel efficient vehicles in the 70s during the embargo. I love that most indie games I can find will run on a toaster.

I bought two LCD models before the OLED came out and have constantly bounced between buyer's remorse (I only use one of them) and feeling okay about this decision.

Currently, I'm feeling like it was a pretty wise move.

Exactly. Not only have the prices gone up, they've gone up for no real reason other than some CEOs are attempting to take over society. The average person isn't even seeing much of the upside of modern technology anymore, just the downsides. Gadgets no longer get cheaper over time, experiences no longer improve over time, and every new startup or innovation seems to be used to make their lives worse, whether directly or indirectly.

The average person does not really benefit from recent AI tech - and the minuscule benefits they may possibly sometimes get are easily outweighed by the negative effects. Say what you will about the morality of bread and circuses, but making them increasingly out of reach seems like a very bad idea to me.

Doesn’t help that prices are skyrocketing because of circular investing and spending between companies trying to amass as many data centers as possible to cash in on AI hype. These same companies keep pushing this idea that everything you know and do is worthless in the face of prompt-fu and that you have to use these platforms they’re pushing or you’re NGMI.

I'm glad at least this happened after consumer electronics plateaued. I don't know about you but in my estimation a 5 year old phone and mid-tier gaming PC are holding up fine. The limiting factor in features is more crappy software than hardware. Unless you're looking to run local AI stuff, I guess? But I don't figure the anti-tech crowd would want to do that.

Give us replaceable batteries and the right to update our own operating systems and I think we can survive unaffordable RAM for decades if it comes to it.

I’m much more concerned by the skyrocketing cost of housing, energy, food, and transport than the cost of tech luxuries.

If I never buy another GPU or console again, there’s more than enough quality gaming for several lifetimes available on older hardware and often very inexpensively.

Inflation adjusted gaming is about the same as its always been. Hurts to see prices go up but it happened during the SNES days too, and the job market was more fucked then.

Ok, I have to ask. How do you accidentally turn it off? The power button is at the top and it's flush. It's not like you can hit it accidentally.

> even with my giant sasquatch hands, it's hard to reach all the buttons

Did you find the OG Xbox "Duke" controller comfortable? I did. The Deck doesn't have the best layout IMO, but I don't have trouble reaching the buttons.

> readable text on the tiny screen

Definitely an issue, especially those over 40 - which, really, is sort of a major part of the expected market.

I got an Xbox Ally X (with bazzite as Gabe intended) after enjoying the steam deck so much. I get it's not for everyone, but I wasn't playing games on my desktop due to life/kids/etc. The handheld is awesome for my personal case, I love casual games and use it on the couch/plane/bed. If you want a PC with a keyboard and mouse that works with everything, get a gaming laptop. If you want to pull out a game for 15 minutes, play, then hit sleep and come back later, a handheld is absolutely the best way to go.

Instead of a tiresome rebuttal of all your hyperbolic, insincere points, I'll just encourage you to go ahead and sell your Deck. Get it into the hands of someone who will appreciate it.

I realized that most of the games I fancied playing just aren't meant for a 7" screen.

Interesting, it's one of my most cherished tech purchases, and I use it extensively, both as a home console and while traveling. It's beautiful.