David Duffy

It’s staggering how out of touch Square Enix can be sometimes. Despite the industry embracing ever-increasing anti-consumer behaviour thanks to the death of physical games, pseudo-$100 releases, and will-they-won’t-they console exclusives, Square has actually done pretty well of late, all things considered.

You would be hard-pressed right now to think of a recent week that’s gone by when anti-consumer practices from major video games companies such as PlayStation and Xbox weren’t making the headlines. Mass layoffs, studio closures, obscene price increases, the death of physical media; the list goes on. Related The driving force behind all these corporate decisions is the obsession with seeing a number go up on a spreadsheet to appease boards of executives.

Valve has finally revealed the price of its long-awaited Steam Machine, and thanks to AI bros ruining technology for all of us, it comes with a price tag that many consider unacceptable. Starting at $1,049/£879 for a 512GB model and rising up $1,349/£1,149 for 2TB storage, it’s a machine that, as with regular games consoles, has limited scope for upgrades like a PC has.