Thats not steep. Even comes with a solid button box setup out of the box. Hell decent Trustmaster base is $300 without the Rim and no pedals. Only someone who is poor and isnt serious about racing would say $649 is steep.

Agonist:

Only someone who is poor and isnt serious about racing would say $649 is steep.

Poor is not the factor at least for many of us. I simply refuse to pay over 400-450 for a GPU. That's why I got only a 3060 12GB. I could get 4090, but why? All things considered, expensive and I don't actually use that much power. All I'm saying, many factors count in. By the way, I see a 4070 Super at 599. Perhaps I could get that in case I was in an extremely old card (1000 series and below). Each guy has his own thinking/excuse/reasoning.

NiColaoS:

Poor is not the factor at least for many of us. I simply refuse to pay over 400-450 for a GPU. That's why I got only a 3060 12GB. I could get 4090, but why? All things considered, expensive and I don't actually use that much power. All I'm saying, many factors count in. By the way, I see a 4070 Super at 599. Perhaps I could get that in case I was in an extremely old card (1000 series and below). Each guy has his own thinking/excuse/reasoning.

When it comes to sim racing, most are poor is the problem. Your point here does not apply. Re-read what I said, Most who are n not serous. My pedals are $400 and considered to be on the cheap end of good pedals. Most are $1000+ for higher end. There are people with $50k+ setups just to play a handful of racing sims.

Those people who are able and most importantly, willing to pay that much, most probably belong at least in the upper middle class and above. Unless you're one of those junkies who work like a maniac for a certain amount of time just to amass the money to get a specific peripheral/hardware. Personally, even if I was millionaire, I wouldn't. I'm on PCs since my first, 486 DXII @80Mhz playing at night doom. Unforgettable experience and what got me hooked. Then Heretic, Return to Castle Wolfenstein etc. Later I got into more genres. Now I'm as old AF, with one foot in the grave as we say in my country, almost 37. I just buy to play 2-3 games and mostly for entertainment/media. Again, personally I'm junky for luxurious bathrooms and home-cinema room at home, but 'cause of my work I live in my apartment which is only 160m2 without the 2 balconies (180m2 with). I'd spend the 50k for the bathroom and to a great extent I already did. Home Cinema, a little hard. I have the room but since it's apartment, I wouldn't enjoy it as much as I'd like. Night time I need the volume low. PC-wise, I'm in love with SSDs since my first, Samsung 830. Then 840, 850, 860 then NVME 970 EVO Plus, then 980PRO and now one 990PRO as my main drive and one SN850X as my storage drive.