A little bit off topic, but in case anyone wants to try out the new Steam Deck UI on their desktop you can do it without installing Steam OS, just follow these steps:
1) Quit Steam
2) Find the "package" directory inside of the main Steam install directory (typically C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam on Windows, ~/.steam/steam on Linux)
3) Inside there create a file called "beta" (no extension), with the following content: steampal_stable_9a24a2bf68596b860cb6710d9ea307a76c29a04d
4) Reopen Steam with the -gamepadui argument
Fair warning: it's a little bit janky when it's not running on Steam Deck hardware. At least it was when I tried it out, but it'll give you a pretty decent idea what it's like. Also to undo it just delete that file and relaunch Steam without the extra argument.
seba_dos1 44 days ago [-]
It's janky not because it's not running on Deck hardware, but because it's not running as system session with Gamescope as compositor, meaning that what you get is simply non-integrated new HTML UI for Steam.
bsedlm 44 days ago [-]
how do you know this? how does one figure this kind of thing out?
philo23 44 days ago [-]
I wish I could take credit, but back while I was waiting for my preorder I really wanted to try out the new UI and found the instructions originally here on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/t57l4t/how_to_ge... but if I had to guess how it was found, someone probably just checked that file on a steam deck or from it's recovery image image.
That file normally contains the name of the client beta you're currently opted into in Steam's settings (normally only "publicbeta" is the only public option) so it's probably the first place someone checked.
bluepizza 44 days ago [-]
Compare the Steam directories and files from a non-Steam Deck Linux install to a Steam Deck one.
pwdisswordfish9 44 days ago [-]
> C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam on Windows, ~/.steam/steam on Linux
FYI you can stop worrying about special casing Windows and just use bog standard slash as separator when discussing path names virtually anywhere where they come up.
jjnoakes 44 days ago [-]
Except those are completely different paths on the two systems (even if the path separator was the same).
Shared404 43 days ago [-]
And it's ok to use the default seperator for whichever OS you're using.
It's gonna be a different path anyways when you're talking about windows, may as well use the right syntax.
pwdisswordfish9 42 days ago [-]
This thinking of backslash as being "the right syntax" for Windows paths is pretty much the reason why the earlier comment was posted.
jjnoakes 40 days ago [-]
I don't follow. Add far as I know, backslash is the "right" path separator on Windows - it works everywhere, is the documented canonical path separator, and has the fewest compatibility issues with programs.
And even if it was on equal footing with forward slash on Windows (which it isn't), bringing it up as an alternative just seemed off-topic.
pwdisswordfish9 43 days ago [-]
Uh... "Except"? What does that observation have to do with anything? It was a gentle reminder that reaching for backslash is not necessary. Nowhere does it say "you can paste the same absolute path in on any system, without regard for where the files actually live".
jjnoakes 43 days ago [-]
> What does that observation have to do with anything?
About as much as the comment I replied to did, I suppose.
Since the paths were right as originally written, and since changing from backslash to forward slash doesn't remove the need to list both paths anyway, bringing up the other ways of writing the windows path seemed unnecessary.
But I was feeling charitable and thought that perhaps you read the original comment too quickly and assumed that the paths were the same except for the slash direction, which would give your comment a little more purpose, and which also gives my reply a little purpose as well.
If that wasn't the case then neither post has any purpose.
pwdisswordfish9 42 days ago [-]
> But I was feeling charitable
Making assumptions about the other person that set you up to argue against whatever position that entails is not what it means to be charitable. It is the opposite. It is uncharitable. (At least to the other person; it's charitable, perhaps, to you.)
> neither post has any purpose
Wrong. It has the same purpose now as it did from the beginning—reminding/alerting people to the fact that using backslashes in paths just because you're talking about Windows is not necessary.
jjnoakes 42 days ago [-]
Using one of the correct path separators for the OS isn't necessary? And someone using one of the correct path separators needs a reminder that other path separtors exist?
There was no more purpose to that than reminding someone that they could have used UNC paths, URIs, 8.3 short names, ...
pwdisswordfish9 40 days ago [-]
> Using one of the correct path separators for the OS isn't necessary?
Using backslash specifically is unnecessary.
There's no point wasting more time here from this point onward. You either refuse to understand, or you understand and refuse to show it. It's not productive to believe that's not going to change.
jjnoakes 40 days ago [-]
How is using forward slash less unnecessary than using backslash? So much more so that it needed to be pointed out without prompting?
I mean backslash is the canonical path separator on Windows, so pointing out that one could use something else was helpful how?
> You either refuse to understand, or you understand and refuse to show it
I actually don't understand the motivation for the comment at all.
xxs 43 days ago [-]
point is - it has been possible to use the forward slash in windows for over 20y... except in some UIs that insist that it has to be backslash.
jjnoakes 40 days ago [-]
Point is, why bring up the non-default alternative path separator that doesn't work universally in Windows when the original comment was correct as is?
They've managed to get things working like the Deck UI, Gamescope, and other internal components.
brnt 44 days ago [-]
I read that the image is problematic on non-AMD-GPU systems. Is this indeed still the case?
jcastro 44 days ago [-]
The new deckui depends on gamescope, which only has preliminary support for nvidia cards. People are working on it though, not sure when to expect it.
iamtheworstdev 43 days ago [-]
correct. steamos isn't worth running unless you're using an AMD GPU right now due to lack of hardware support.
walrus01 44 days ago [-]
unfortunately it still seems to be impossible to buy a steam deck at a normal price, they're on ebay from scalpers... I've no idea what the real world waiting list time is right now.
toasteros 44 days ago [-]
If you put a reservation in today, there's a solid chance you'll get it at a normal price in October. It's $5 for the reservation. Just put one in and be patient.
If anything, I would probably say it's better to wait and get a Deck later than sooner, because it is improving on the software side incredibly rapidly. The day one experience you have with your Deck in October will be a lot better than what I had last month.
trashcan 44 days ago [-]
I pre-ordered in January and my date shows:
> After Q3 (October 2022 or later)
I know they have ramped up production but I would be surprised if an order made today comes in October. But waiting is still better than supporting scalpers.
smabie 44 days ago [-]
What's wrong with scalpers? They offer a valuable service: allowing people who want something to be able to pay for it.
squarefoot 44 days ago [-]
It's rather the opposite. They control the supply by creating artificial scarcity in order to profit from inflated prices. It's the absolute opposite of a service.
Example: 1000 Decks available at the distributor at €100 each (random numbers just to show the point) and 1000 people willing to buy one. Fine, each user orders one at that price and bingo: everyone is satisfied. Now put in there a scalper, that is, a middleman who buys almost all Decks at the price (or rather at a discount), then keeps them in storage for a while. Users start buying normally from official sources, then the stocks deplete and scalpers become the only supplier in town. Now everyone wants a Deck but they're unobtanium everywhere, so their scarcity inflates their perceived value and soon or later users are willing to pay twice their retail price to own the thing, rather than wait for the supply to return normal. The scalper slowly sells them one or very few at a time at inflated price and profit is guaranteed.
Now, if the product was built on Mars and the middleman added some value, for example using his cargo spaceship to bring them on Earth a thousand at a time, that would be fine, but the way they operate they're completely useless middlemen adding nothing of value and rather inflating prices for their own profit.
JetSetWilly 43 days ago [-]
The situation where 1000 get from the distributor at "retail" price is essentially a lottery. It is great if you "won" a ticket and get the item at the retail price (which is less than the market demand would have it at), but not so great otherwise.
Scalpers increase efficiency because those who desire an item the most are willing to pay the most money for it. Therefore with a "scalper" operating it ensures that the items end up in the hands of those who value it the most. It also means there's no "lottery" - the price is increased until only those who value it and have the means can buy it. As we're talking about steam decks, and not food, there's not even any ultimate issue of hoarding or people being denied basic sustenance because they don't have enough money.
parineum 44 days ago [-]
> It's rather the opposite. They control the supply by creating artificial scarcity
The scarcity is real. Scalpers sell the time and effort required to obtain scarce items.
>Now put in there a scalper, that is, a middleman who buys almost all Decks at the price (or rather at a discount), then keeps them in storage for a while.
This isn't happening. The value of the Steam Deck to a scalper goes down every time one is manufactured. They have to flip them as soon as possible to profit unless they somehow plan on buying all of the steam decks in perpetuity.
This isn't like concert tickets where there's a finite supply. Scalpers can't buy a significant amount of Decks because valve is just going to keep making them and selling them for less than the scalpers.
> the middleman added some value
Scalpers do add value. Think of it like paying someone to stand in line for you but not in advance.
Shared404 43 days ago [-]
I'll admit, I have difficulty believing this is a legitimate take.
All scalpers do is decrease efficiency. It's not paying someone to stand in line, it's paying protection to someone to get something that would be available by default.
Or maybe a bit of both, at best.
zo1 43 days ago [-]
The real problem here is that we as a society are broken and would absolutely slaughter Valve if they had variable pricing for this in-demand product. E.g. if Valve were to offer Steamdecks at twice the price for you to get to the head of the queue. Scalpers wouldn't exist in that situation unless even that "price point" wasn't satisfying everyone in the market. E.g. what about Bill Gates that wants one right now, shouldn't he be allowed to call up Valve and say "1 mill, I want to get my hands on this thing today!".
There is a gap in the market for whatever reason, and the scalpers are exploiting it. We may not like it, it may be a dirty practice, but it's filling a price-point that people are willing to pay. Not only that, but because Valve is unwilling to offer the product at a specific price/availability rate, they actively created the scalper market.
Shared404 43 days ago [-]
> what about Bill Gates that wants one right now, shouldn't he be allowed to call up Valve and say "1 mill, I want to get my hands on this thing today!".
I'm of the opinion that this should be allowed - when it's a direct interaction between the purchaser and seller.
Any purchaser has the right to contact any seller and say I'll give you N*$ORIGINAL_PRICE to try to purchase something out of line. I'll agree that there's nothing wrong with reselling something you purchased, at whatever price you can - as long as it wasn't purchased specifically for that purpose, and _especially_ as long as automation wasn't involved.
BolexNOLA 43 days ago [-]
>there is a gap in the market for whatever reason
A gap that is further expanded by the existence of scalpers, which is a huge part of the problem. They’re making a problem worse and in some extreme cases even making a problem where there wasn’t one or it was at least minimal (happens with concerts all the time). Theres a reason so many big items/pre-orders/concerts etc. have invested in queue systems and limit purchase numbers. The ones that don’t are inviting scalpers.
FeepingCreature 43 days ago [-]
I also agree with this.
Valve should offer a separate bundle of Steam Decks that are available sooner in exchange for a higher price. Since they have chosen (for PR reasons, presumably) to not do this, scalpers offer this service instead.
sneak 43 days ago [-]
It is not only legitimate, it is accurate, and I also agree with it.
Scalpers do not create the situation where demand exceeds supply.
Edit: I get it, y'all don't like scalpers. I am not a scalper (though I have no problem with it), I am just responding to their disbelief by providing data.
kazinator 44 days ago [-]
Scalpers interfere with the original vendor keeping things affordable. E.g. concert tickets: the same number of seats are filled with or without scalpers, but scalpers just ensure that the tickets are more pricy and the concertgoers are richer people. They are just third parties not affiliated with the venue or the artist who help themselves to some cash, by eroding a margin of affordability that was implicit in the original pricing.
If scalpers took food from a food bank and sold it at close to retail prices, would you still say they are doing a service?
Vecr 44 days ago [-]
The solution to scalpers is for the original seller to increase the price of the item to the point where the number of scalped items being sold goes down, but the total sales also don't go down too much. Re-adjust as supply and demand change, of course. I think lots of people who don't understand economics would become upset if you did that in many cases, though. Probably would not work for tickets to an event, because you don't have enough time to adjust. Would probably work for Steam Decks and graphics cards though.
kazinator 43 days ago [-]
> The solution to scalpers is for the original seller to increase the price of the item
Maybe they are getting enough value from their customers as it is, and don't want to be dicks.
potatoz2 43 days ago [-]
You need a way to deal with the scarcity. Pricing is the default way to do that. If you want to avoid pricing, you need to think through what alternative you’ll use, otherwise pricing happens anyway.
kbenson 44 days ago [-]
There's really so much more to it. Secondary market brokers (scalpers) shift risk, smooth out demand, and when you catch the right event at the right time, often offer ticket for less than they were originally purchased for. This happens when an artist adds another day to a venue, increasing supply drastically, or when brokers just misjudge demand (it's always a gamble whether to sell immediately (if things even sold out) or hold until closer to the event when demand might be higher (and ticket might have eventually sold out). Check Stubhub or Ticketmaster's resale pages for events right before the event starts. You might be surprised how cheap you can get tickets right before in some cases.
> If scalpers took food from a food bank and sold it at close to retail prices, would you still say they are doing a service?
Not everything should be a market. I don't think using something that obviously shouldn't be a market, like providing free food to the needy, as a valid case where market behavior if it was applied negatively proves that markets are bad in general for other things that are dissimilar.
I've written about this before. I used to work in that industry. You can see some of what I wrote here[1] (sorry, it's just a search result), and this[2] specifically was what I view as a fairly productive conversation that covered a lot of points that I think are rarely discussed regarding this topic, in case you're interested.
"I don't want to be be competing against the rabble in the contest of who is early bird to the worm. I've already beaten them with my social position and income, and therefore that should be the contest (in as many situations as possible and applicable, generally speaking). It turns out that some of the same roustabouts are willing to employ themselves in such a way that, for my benefit, they engage in the time competition, whereby they effectively turn it into a convenient bidding competition. As a bonus, the more patrons there are who pay more, the safer and more orderly the event will be. As if that weren't sufficiently excellent, sometimes the hapless ragamuffins find themselves desperate to liquidate numerous unsold tickets close to the event, whereby I can actually save money."
BolexNOLA 44 days ago [-]
>allowing people who want something to be able to pay for it.
…instead of paying MSRP, which there would’ve been a better chance of if scalpers weren’t a part of the equation.
fortyseven 43 days ago [-]
I'm looking for the "/s". Where's the goddamned "/s"?!
sixothree 44 days ago [-]
Of course that will be for an item that is almost a year old. So at this point, my advice is to consider waiting.
I ordered in August 2021 and that site tells me 23 days until it's my turn. Yet the steam site says after Q3
yepguy 44 days ago [-]
I think you misunderstood the site (which is understandable, because it's pretty confusing). It's not estimating when you'll get your order. It's telling you that the people at the front of queue placed their order 23 days before you.
dagurp 43 days ago [-]
Ah, thanks :)
striking 44 days ago [-]
The waiting list is starting to subside afaict. It'll still be some time (they say "October or later" for current reservations) but picking one up from a scalper is probably not worth the monetary and moral cost.
stuart78 44 days ago [-]
So far they are meeting or beating the expectations set for pre-order customers. My own order was targeted at Q3 (July - Oct) and I got my order completion link on 6/30. Currently they list only "After Q3", so def hard to know what that means, but it does seem that they are catching up.
seba_dos1 44 days ago [-]
It likely means that they expect to clear the queue and have some in stock sometime after Q3.
flatiron 44 days ago [-]
I’m a big “v2” person. Usually if a product gets a v2 it’s going to be supported for a bit and all of the returned consoles with a broken X have a much better X in V2. But that doesn’t help you if you want to play games now! My kids are still young so I think by the time v2 comes they will be game ready.
adwf 44 days ago [-]
Problem is that Valve have yet to ever go to V2 for their hardware unfortunately.
kbenson 44 days ago [-]
Also not a bad reason to wait. If it's not important enough for them to iterate on to make better/cheaper because it's still selling, it might be better to skip for most people.
Thankfully, I've only heard good things about the steam deck, so hopefully they'll fix whatever hardware/manufacturing problems they might find and make changes to make it better.
Barring that, I hear it's popular enough that there will probably be third party "equivalent" hardware soon, and maybe they would see it as profitable enough to iterate and make better if valve for some reason doesn't.
ineedasername 44 days ago [-]
They just had some type.of announcement about doubling production runs, so that may help.
Also, the low end model may be the easiest to get, and you really don't need more than that. I'm sure the better drives are faster, but speaking from my own experience with a 64GB unit w/ 512GB micro SD card, it works just fine. Load speeds are perfectly reasonable, as are downloads/installs.
grogenaut 44 days ago [-]
My reservation just popped, I was in the August -> September group until it popped. I bought maybe 6pm on the day it went on sale due to heir massive issues with card processing and so being locked out for 4 hours due to "fraud checks".
vehemenz 44 days ago [-]
After owning a Steam Deck for several months, I think it's worth paying ebay prices. They are pretty reasonable if you're used to the scalped GPU/console market. That's just my opinion though.
tomc1985 44 days ago [-]
I put in a reservation last year and it just finally proc'd
sixothree 44 days ago [-]
I (pre)ordered one less than six hours after launch. In a few weeks it will have been a year. I think QEMU may be the only way I experience it.
seba_dos1 44 days ago [-]
I wonder what makes people so unfamiliar with simple concept of queues these days? Waiting a year or more for a newly announced hardware isn't something incredibly uncommon considering current part shortages, yet there are always people who seem to act as if they're never going to reach their place in the queue. Just wait a bit and you'll get it, there's really nothing that would point to it becoming vaporware. To the contrary, Deck order fulfillment actually seems to be going remarkably smooth.
sixothree 44 days ago [-]
A year is a long time to wait for a pre-order. This isn't kickstarter.
More specifically, 7+ months is a long time to wait after a product starts shipping.
Additionally, I ordered the 512 model. They have only processed two hours worth of orders for the 512 gb model. I'm 6 hours in.
seba_dos1 43 days ago [-]
> A year is a long time to wait for a pre-order.
You haven't pre-ordered it at all, you just reserved your spot in the queue for refundable $5. And no, we're in 2022; supply chains barely start to recover from post-COVID shortages. It's not unexpected to wait for a year or two for consumer hardware like that - there's often a long time between "product starts shipping" and "production ramps up to significant volume" now, which didn't use to be as noticeable pre-pandemic, as normally you want to ramp up as soon as possible to benefit from economies of scale.
parineum 44 days ago [-]
>They have only processed two hours worth of orders for the 512 gb model. I'm 6 hours in.
I imagine that the orders per hour density drops significantly over time. I wouldn't be surprised if hours 1 and 2 had the same amount of orders as the rest of day 1
seba_dos1 43 days ago [-]
Not only order density drops down, but also production yield ramps up with time. They're likely a few months away from clearing the queue and keeping stock.
fuzzy2 43 days ago [-]
> They have only processed two hours worth of orders for the 512 gb model.
I ordered at 10:54 PM CEST (== 1:54 PM PST), almost 4 hours in. I received my 512 GB Deck over a month ago, right in the indicated time frame.
But that's in Europe (shipped via Amsterdam, as usual), it may be different elsewhere.
bitwize 43 days ago [-]
People still have a hard time getting ninth-gen consoles from Sony or Microsoft. Something as boutique-schmoutique as the Steam Deck is gonna get hit hard by supply chain issues.
cpressland 44 days ago [-]
Don’t give up hope, I got my order email on Monday, I preordered within a few hours of launch much like yourself.
Arrath 44 days ago [-]
Same here. A co-worker and I both pre-ordered in the same timeframe, he got his email two weeks ago and got the deck this weekend. I'm still anxiously awaiting my email.
shmerl 44 days ago [-]
Why use raw Qemu vs something like virt-manager that's a wrapper around Qemu/KVM + libvirt?
boomboomsubban 44 days ago [-]
If you know qemu there's little need for the wrappers, and the author seems to know qemu.
shmerl 44 days ago [-]
I assumed there was some reason like unusual configuration and such.
boomboomsubban 44 days ago [-]
I don't think so, it looks like it's making a fairly generic 64 bit computer, with the mentioned nvme being the only notable component.
dizhn 43 days ago [-]
They probably wanted to make it as generic as possible. virt-manager is not available for windows for instance and it's very slow to run it remotely.
1) Quit Steam
2) Find the "package" directory inside of the main Steam install directory (typically C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam on Windows, ~/.steam/steam on Linux)
3) Inside there create a file called "beta" (no extension), with the following content: steampal_stable_9a24a2bf68596b860cb6710d9ea307a76c29a04d
4) Reopen Steam with the -gamepadui argument
Fair warning: it's a little bit janky when it's not running on Steam Deck hardware. At least it was when I tried it out, but it'll give you a pretty decent idea what it's like. Also to undo it just delete that file and relaunch Steam without the extra argument.
That file normally contains the name of the client beta you're currently opted into in Steam's settings (normally only "publicbeta" is the only public option) so it's probably the first place someone checked.
FYI you can stop worrying about special casing Windows and just use bog standard slash as separator when discussing path names virtually anywhere where they come up.
It's gonna be a different path anyways when you're talking about windows, may as well use the right syntax.
And even if it was on equal footing with forward slash on Windows (which it isn't), bringing it up as an alternative just seemed off-topic.
About as much as the comment I replied to did, I suppose.
Since the paths were right as originally written, and since changing from backslash to forward slash doesn't remove the need to list both paths anyway, bringing up the other ways of writing the windows path seemed unnecessary.
But I was feeling charitable and thought that perhaps you read the original comment too quickly and assumed that the paths were the same except for the slash direction, which would give your comment a little more purpose, and which also gives my reply a little purpose as well.
If that wasn't the case then neither post has any purpose.
Making assumptions about the other person that set you up to argue against whatever position that entails is not what it means to be charitable. It is the opposite. It is uncharitable. (At least to the other person; it's charitable, perhaps, to you.)
> neither post has any purpose
Wrong. It has the same purpose now as it did from the beginning—reminding/alerting people to the fact that using backslashes in paths just because you're talking about Windows is not necessary.
There was no more purpose to that than reminding someone that they could have used UNC paths, URIs, 8.3 short names, ...
Using backslash specifically is unnecessary.
There's no point wasting more time here from this point onward. You either refuse to understand, or you understand and refuse to show it. It's not productive to believe that's not going to change.
I mean backslash is the canonical path separator on Windows, so pointing out that one could use something else was helpful how?
> You either refuse to understand, or you understand and refuse to show it
I actually don't understand the motivation for the comment at all.
They've managed to get things working like the Deck UI, Gamescope, and other internal components.
If anything, I would probably say it's better to wait and get a Deck later than sooner, because it is improving on the software side incredibly rapidly. The day one experience you have with your Deck in October will be a lot better than what I had last month.
> After Q3 (October 2022 or later)
I know they have ramped up production but I would be surprised if an order made today comes in October. But waiting is still better than supporting scalpers.
Example: 1000 Decks available at the distributor at €100 each (random numbers just to show the point) and 1000 people willing to buy one. Fine, each user orders one at that price and bingo: everyone is satisfied. Now put in there a scalper, that is, a middleman who buys almost all Decks at the price (or rather at a discount), then keeps them in storage for a while. Users start buying normally from official sources, then the stocks deplete and scalpers become the only supplier in town. Now everyone wants a Deck but they're unobtanium everywhere, so their scarcity inflates their perceived value and soon or later users are willing to pay twice their retail price to own the thing, rather than wait for the supply to return normal. The scalper slowly sells them one or very few at a time at inflated price and profit is guaranteed.
Now, if the product was built on Mars and the middleman added some value, for example using his cargo spaceship to bring them on Earth a thousand at a time, that would be fine, but the way they operate they're completely useless middlemen adding nothing of value and rather inflating prices for their own profit.
Scalpers increase efficiency because those who desire an item the most are willing to pay the most money for it. Therefore with a "scalper" operating it ensures that the items end up in the hands of those who value it the most. It also means there's no "lottery" - the price is increased until only those who value it and have the means can buy it. As we're talking about steam decks, and not food, there's not even any ultimate issue of hoarding or people being denied basic sustenance because they don't have enough money.
The scarcity is real. Scalpers sell the time and effort required to obtain scarce items.
>Now put in there a scalper, that is, a middleman who buys almost all Decks at the price (or rather at a discount), then keeps them in storage for a while.
This isn't happening. The value of the Steam Deck to a scalper goes down every time one is manufactured. They have to flip them as soon as possible to profit unless they somehow plan on buying all of the steam decks in perpetuity.
This isn't like concert tickets where there's a finite supply. Scalpers can't buy a significant amount of Decks because valve is just going to keep making them and selling them for less than the scalpers.
> the middleman added some value
Scalpers do add value. Think of it like paying someone to stand in line for you but not in advance.
All scalpers do is decrease efficiency. It's not paying someone to stand in line, it's paying protection to someone to get something that would be available by default.
Or maybe a bit of both, at best.
There is a gap in the market for whatever reason, and the scalpers are exploiting it. We may not like it, it may be a dirty practice, but it's filling a price-point that people are willing to pay. Not only that, but because Valve is unwilling to offer the product at a specific price/availability rate, they actively created the scalper market.
I'm of the opinion that this should be allowed - when it's a direct interaction between the purchaser and seller.
Any purchaser has the right to contact any seller and say I'll give you N*$ORIGINAL_PRICE to try to purchase something out of line. I'll agree that there's nothing wrong with reselling something you purchased, at whatever price you can - as long as it wasn't purchased specifically for that purpose, and _especially_ as long as automation wasn't involved.
A gap that is further expanded by the existence of scalpers, which is a huge part of the problem. They’re making a problem worse and in some extreme cases even making a problem where there wasn’t one or it was at least minimal (happens with concerts all the time). Theres a reason so many big items/pre-orders/concerts etc. have invested in queue systems and limit purchase numbers. The ones that don’t are inviting scalpers.
Valve should offer a separate bundle of Steam Decks that are available sooner in exchange for a higher price. Since they have chosen (for PR reasons, presumably) to not do this, scalpers offer this service instead.
Scalpers do not create the situation where demand exceeds supply.
Edit: I get it, y'all don't like scalpers. I am not a scalper (though I have no problem with it), I am just responding to their disbelief by providing data.
If scalpers took food from a food bank and sold it at close to retail prices, would you still say they are doing a service?
Maybe they are getting enough value from their customers as it is, and don't want to be dicks.
> If scalpers took food from a food bank and sold it at close to retail prices, would you still say they are doing a service?
Not everything should be a market. I don't think using something that obviously shouldn't be a market, like providing free food to the needy, as a valid case where market behavior if it was applied negatively proves that markets are bad in general for other things that are dissimilar.
I've written about this before. I used to work in that industry. You can see some of what I wrote here[1] (sorry, it's just a search result), and this[2] specifically was what I view as a fairly productive conversation that covered a lot of points that I think are rarely discussed regarding this topic, in case you're interested.
1: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
2: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16369818
"I don't want to be be competing against the rabble in the contest of who is early bird to the worm. I've already beaten them with my social position and income, and therefore that should be the contest (in as many situations as possible and applicable, generally speaking). It turns out that some of the same roustabouts are willing to employ themselves in such a way that, for my benefit, they engage in the time competition, whereby they effectively turn it into a convenient bidding competition. As a bonus, the more patrons there are who pay more, the safer and more orderly the event will be. As if that weren't sufficiently excellent, sometimes the hapless ragamuffins find themselves desperate to liquidate numerous unsold tickets close to the event, whereby I can actually save money."
…instead of paying MSRP, which there would’ve been a better chance of if scalpers weren’t a part of the equation.
edit: additionally, this site will tell you how close they are to getting to you https://getmydeck.ingenhaag.dev/
Thankfully, I've only heard good things about the steam deck, so hopefully they'll fix whatever hardware/manufacturing problems they might find and make changes to make it better.
Barring that, I hear it's popular enough that there will probably be third party "equivalent" hardware soon, and maybe they would see it as profitable enough to iterate and make better if valve for some reason doesn't.
Also, the low end model may be the easiest to get, and you really don't need more than that. I'm sure the better drives are faster, but speaking from my own experience with a 64GB unit w/ 512GB micro SD card, it works just fine. Load speeds are perfectly reasonable, as are downloads/installs.
More specifically, 7+ months is a long time to wait after a product starts shipping.
Additionally, I ordered the 512 model. They have only processed two hours worth of orders for the 512 gb model. I'm 6 hours in.
You haven't pre-ordered it at all, you just reserved your spot in the queue for refundable $5. And no, we're in 2022; supply chains barely start to recover from post-COVID shortages. It's not unexpected to wait for a year or two for consumer hardware like that - there's often a long time between "product starts shipping" and "production ramps up to significant volume" now, which didn't use to be as noticeable pre-pandemic, as normally you want to ramp up as soon as possible to benefit from economies of scale.
I imagine that the orders per hour density drops significantly over time. I wouldn't be surprised if hours 1 and 2 had the same amount of orders as the rest of day 1
I ordered at 10:54 PM CEST (== 1:54 PM PST), almost 4 hours in. I received my 512 GB Deck over a month ago, right in the indicated time frame.
But that's in Europe (shipped via Amsterdam, as usual), it may be different elsewhere.
`# echo '[Autologin] > /etc/sddm.conf.d/zz-steamos-autologin.conf`