One aspect of the Steam Deck that hasn't gotten as much attention as I think it deserves is that it costs about half as much as any competing device with comparable specs. Why? Valve is subsidizing the cost like Sony and Microsoft have done in the past. Sell the console at cost or even at a loss, because you're going to make a 30% commission on every game sold. Gabe Newell said that the pricing is "painful", especially for the 64GB model. I suspect this won't be an issue in the long run, if others' Steam purchasing habits are similar to mine since getting a Steam Deck.
sudosysgen|3 years ago
The cost of the specs itself is likely to be very minor. I'd be surprised if they're paying more than 120$ for the APU. I imagine a lot of the cost came from it being so different from anything else.