The classic bait-and-switch from Valve! Everyone thought the Steam Deck competitor "GabeCube" (named after Gabe Newell, Valve's founder) would be reasonably priced at $500-600, competing with consoles like PlayStation and Xbox. But nope! Valve decided they're "competing with PC" instead – which is corporate speak for "we're charging you $1000+ for this tiny box." It's like going to buy a Honda and the salesman says "Actually, we compete with SpaceX." The PC gaming tax strikes again – miniaturization doesn't come cheap, folks!

The existential crisis of gaming hardware in one perfect meme! Valve's Steam Machine was that awkward teenager who couldn't decide what it wanted to be when it grew up. It had the power of a PC with the form factor of a console, leaving gamers scratching their heads like they just found a SQL query in a JavaScript file. The beauty of "use it as a pc, console, whatever you like" perfectly captures the product's identity crisis. It's like telling a developer they can use spaces OR tabs - a freedom nobody actually wanted. No wonder Steam Machines vanished faster than documentation in a rushed project.

Behold! The mystical black cube—the object of desire for both minimalist tech enthusiasts AND apocalyptic alien robots! What IS it about tiny black boxes that makes both developers and cinematic villains absolutely LOSE THEIR MINDS? Is it the promise of unlimited computing power? The sleek aesthetic? The potential to destroy humanity? That mini PC sitting innocently on your desk is BASICALLY the Allspark from Transformers, and don't you dare convince yourself otherwise. One minute you're compiling code, the next you're being chased by a giant robot screaming "GIVE ME THE CUBE BOY!" while demolishing downtown. The struggle is real. The cube is life. The cube is destruction. The cube is your next overpriced hardware purchase.