Steam Deck expected order availability now Q1 2022 (64GB), Q2 2022 (256GB) and Q3 2022 (512GB)
Valve tightens.
Valve has adjusted the availability of its Steam Deck handheld following significant demand yesterday.
Steam Deck reservations opened in select regions last night, with shipments scheduled to start in December 2021.
But significant demand - which caused some early technical problems - has now seen Valve adjust the availability of Steam Deck for new pre-orders.
Try to reserve the Steam Deck now, and you'll be faced with a Q1 2022 expected order availability for the £349 64GB model, a Q2 2022 expected order availability for the £459 256GB, and a Q3 2022 expected order availability for the £569 512GB model.
This means if you now plump for the 256GB model, you'll face a wait of up to half a year compared to those who managed to reserve theirs for December 2021. If you put your money down for the 512GB model, you may not get your Steam Deck until the end of September 2022.
Steam Deck is a powerful, portable gaming PC that lets you take their Steam library with you wherever you go. For more, check out Digital Foundry's Steam Deck spec analysis.
To combat scalpers, Valve charges a £4 "reserve now" fee, and only people who had bought something on Steam prior to June 2021 would be able to pre-order the console during its first 48 hours of availability. The company said in a note to press that "customers will be notified to make their purchase in the order reservations were made as inventory comes available".
Some who tried to reserve a Steam Deck yesterday were told their accounts were too new, despite them being years old. But it seems these issues have now sorted themselves out.