It’s funny to see people be surprised by this, steam is a lot more beloved and trusted by their fans then any other place cuz of how consistently good they are to they’re customers. Even at this unfortunate price point people likely still see it as a good value.
This is the true value of not fucking over your consumers with short sighted nonsense.
Also, some people are willing to pay a premium for good looks and/or HDMI CEC.
Personally, beyond HDMI CEC I’m heavily considering picking it up if I get a slot as Valve has a great track record of supporting their hardware, it is quiet and relatively low power consumption, and I will likely not have to tinker much to get a solid experience.
To me it’s similar to 3D printers, you can either pay less and the hardware becomes part of the project/hobby itself. Or you can pay a bit more and just get to reliably use the hardware.
PC component prices are a little higher in Japan on average than in North America, and the shortages are affecting Japan more acutely in the DIY computer space.
Even at a higher price, a compact, quiet offering of a decently capable machine does have a solid appeal to that market.
