Steam Decks Might Not Get to Buyers Before 2022

So you managed to nab yourself a reservation for the Steam Deck, the newly announced handheld PC gaming device that Valve announced earlier this week, which will allegedly run AAA PC titles on a device that can be taken on the go (in theory — there’s no way that chunky boi is fitting into any of my purses). Well, not-so-great news: There’s a chance you won’t get the console when it starts to ship out in December.

Reservations for the Steam Deck opened this morning, and users who put down the fee were put in a queue. Several users ran into problems, but for the most part, many users were able to join this queue — those who did will eventually have their reservations converted to orders, depending on supply. But if you didn’t get in with that initial rush of orders, then you’ll probably notice if you visit the Steam Deck reservation page: The expected date at which users will receive their consoles has been pushed back.

At the time of this writing, each model of the Steam Deck available says, “Expected order availability: Q2 2022,” meaning that’s likely the earliest date users can expect to see their handheld. A Valve spokesperson told IGN: “We are making them as quickly as we are able, and the different ship times you reference are based on region and model being reserved.”

As if the problems with the pre-orders weren’t disappointing enough, now users who did manage to get on the coveted queue might not even get their Deck before the end of the year. Still, given how scarce consoles have been the last year or so, users can probably afford to be patient. Naturally, the anti-scalper system Valve tried to establish for the Steam Deck wasn’t entirely successful, as some shady-looking listings on eBay claim to be selling the console (or at least a high-queue reservation) for truly insulting sums of money.

Source: IGN