The one and only thing I don't get about the Steam Machine

Ok so for context - I am talking about Valve's console-PC. Not steam engines.

Secondly - as a computer capable of runing windows, the steam machine can not be sold at cost to make up for the loss with game sales, as if it was, the second Bob at IT in literally ANY company is tasked with preparing five new computers for the office, he's gonna go for the Steam machine, as it's gonna be even cheaper than assembling some himself and even less of a pain in the ass than buing more expensive office pre-builds. It's just a fact of life that the GabeCube was gonna be expensive in the current market of components, even if Valve never aimed for super high spec (despite claims of 4k 60FPS gaming, which is maybe the second most puzzling thing about the release).

The one and only thing they can ever subsidize of their hardware is the controller. The Frame, their new VR headset we are still awaiting, also has big reasons to not be cheaper than parts, not least of which are it's optics, but the short of it is - there are a lot of non-gaming hobbies and industries that use VR which, in a market a lot less crowded than controllers, would likely jump on the thing for any one of it's unique features, let alone at lowered price, least they can do is pay for it's creation.

Chances are in fact that buying the controler separate is already cheaper than it's raw cost. It's certainly not cheap, but it does have a whle two more 2D analog inputs than even the best of competitive-grade gamepads, and it comes with a custom reciever for improved latency and more comfortable charging, all of which at great cost of engineering. And for a good reason - No console will ever accept it. The only people buying them are PC gamers. And Steam is THE game store on PC. Not to mention, the only place you can buy valve's hardware officially. Chances of anyone purchasing Steam's dedicated controler and not using it to play games bought on steeam is ZERO. UJnless they are literally doing it for a meme, OR they have a HIGHLY specific project in robotics or somewhere else entirely.

For this reason it's all the less likely that it wouldn't be used to propagate sales on steam is all the LESSER when it comes with the price of a whole computer. It would stand to reason then, to offset what can't be cut from the price of the computer by lowering the price of the controller in the bundle deal. Which they have - it goes from $100 to $70. Which is, frankly - not enough IMO. But I do understand that - Scalpers have already proven themselves to be an issue for the controller, and being able to buy both then sell separately would opnly improve their profit potential, but there is a little more to consider.

See, every controller sold by Valve comes with what they call a puck - a base station that dedicates a special low latency line to it, when connected to a PC, while also doubling as a drop-it-on-top-and-go charging station for it, though it's not required for the controller to work - it does just fine with regular bluetooth and USB-C cable. Still, it makes sense - something to make sure you don't abandon plans of gaming because A-the controller isn't charged in, and B- because having a wireless keyboard, mouse and headset conected to the same Bluetooth reciever as your controller can actually start tanking it's the latency performance, which is annoying to deal with. Also each one can handle up to 4 controllers, as even the earliest Xbox360 wireless controller reciever would.

How does that affect the Machine? Well in their wisdom, valve figured that since the motherboard is custom anyawy, and the PC is small, as to excell in tight spaces (so long as it has decent airflow, but as much is true for all other gaming machines), it only makes sense to include the connectivity of the dedicated Puck into the machine (along 3 other antennas, somehow). And yet. - The Controller bundle comes with the puck still.

This may not strike you as odd. Perhaps it isn't. But what it is, at least to me, is incredibly suboptimal. Reasons why are as follows:

1. In their official overview video, Valve sugests that once the controller is paired with the machine, the included puck can be used as convenient charging station. The same could be achieved by re-using the puck's chassis but only putting the charging circuitry in it. This may not sound like a lot of savings, but advanced versions of basic protoclos like bluetooth can cost a lot more in licensing, both from their consortiums, and in this case FTC and other national regulatory bodies for radio emissions. Andy ambiguity this could cost between the true and simplified pucks could be solved with a sticker. It could still pose some issues on the resale market, but given the other ways to connect them to computers effectively, it's a lesser issue than cost.
2. Given the presence of two USB ports on the front of the machine and a chunk of the functionality being handled internally, further cost reductions could be achieved by simply replacing the puck with a USB cable. Especially since gaming is a 100% possible when wired. Including a longer cable would certainly make the experience better, but given the fact it can be charged from any USB port, including wall outlets 1.5m should be perfectly acceptable, especially since it remains the standard among competiors who allegedly handle charge retention quite a bit worse.
3. To further drive the prior two points - the Machine is designed as a couch gaming product. Given the nature of living-room gaming, chances are significantly higher, that a second Steam controller would be purchased for the Machine either alongside it or over time. That controller, purchased in box would also include a fully functional puck. Currently this brings the total of recievers in that hypothetical household, capable of connecting to twice that many controllers each, up to 3. For 2 controllers, which, again - can connect over wire and regular bluetooth as well.
4. In the current configuration, scalpers, who already became an issue with controllers sold individually, by purchasing the bundle, recieve two fully functional items, which they can profit off of separately, thus opening a window for abuse of countermeasures such as maximum unit numbers sold per account/address and so on, albeit a minor one.

Naturally the biggest advantage is greater percieved value of the bundle. So long as it's marginally more expensive than the base models - everyone who just wants a small PC will just get the small PC. And the truth is - Controllers themselves will probably help propagate sales on steam even if scalpers get them. Again - the only people who can use them are PC gamers and some very specific engineers, who WILL rather go with a cheaper option unless they really need those touch pads, and even then - VR controllers have those too, so, really - what are the chances anyone who doesn't game on steam goes for it?

And yes - the computer WILL sell, but that's not the point. I'm very sure Valve wanted to make one of these in the first place because even before the component prices hiked the PC gaming market was becoming a mess - top-end GPUs where getting crazy both in prices and features, and AAA games were ignoring anything under a tier, maybe two tiers below that, not to mention space and memory, basically the only thing NOT getting strained was the CPU. I think Valve was hoping that wit a machine that could run it but was spec'ed FIRMLY lower than that performance range, those developers (themselves forced by publishers) would have to start to at least consider optimising PC games the way they do console games, with the benefit of actually having a clear performance target. Itself still allegedly better than 70% of steam users' machines, so not unreasonably low either.
That still wasn't gonna happen with the prices sky-rocketting, but honestly at this point I'd start jumping at straws like those myself - 2 controller bundle for $50 more than the system alone would suddenly make the deal a lot more reasonble as a whole, even with the caveat that I wouldn't be including anything better than two USB-C cables only one of which long enough to game through, the second would only be long enough to put the controller on top of the cube as it charges, because it would still be 2 copntrollers for the price of HALF with the charging being their sole downside. Can't say it would still be a worse deal for scalpers, but It probably wouldn't be making things all that much worse assuming the countermeasures work.

And that's my copium for the subject, honestly - they do need to see how well those countermeasures do before doing anything too wild. They are known for their sales, so maybe some crazy deals invovling controllers' price subsidisation do in fact materialise later, but I am more than aware - that's wishful thinking. It's already their second go at it, and it's already more successful than the first, despite all this - I can promise you that. But none of this explains why the hell they decided to put that puck into the bundle. Like, fuck, man.