The lottery doesn’t work

I'm tired of waiting. I've been a PC gamer since I was 12.

I've been playing on PC with Steam for 20 years. I bought the Steam Deck and put (and still put) hundreds of hours of playtime into it. I bought the Steam Controller, a controller I love and use daily. I joined the Steam Machine queue from the very first minute reservations opened, and I got stuck in the queue, because I keep reading about people who have been in line for 20, 30 days and already have it, while I just keep waiting and waiting. I joined the queue for the Frame, I've been buying VR games over the months planning to debut the Frame with incredible games, and as always, I jumped in line the very first minute it opened. On Friday, I got the notification, and once again, I wasn't selected.

And here I am, on my 30th birthday, sitting in two waitlists to spend €2,000 on Valve products I actually want. First world problems…

I'm not going to cancel my spot in line, and I'm not saying Valve did the wrong thing by setting up these systems, but it feels sad that people like me, who have spent years and years on Steam with thousands upon thousands of euros poured into the platform over time, are still waiting while others buy the hardware just to flip it online for €100-€200 more. I believe a system like this was necessary and they did the right thing, but it's not entirely fair the moment Machines are up for sale on third-party marketplaces while loyal fans can't even get their hands on one…