According to Valve, the Steam Deck will not meet its December 2021 delivery deadline, and instead, every order will begin shipping in February 2022… Add that to the variety of games and hardware coming out this month. Originally the Steam Deck was scheduled to launch in December, but now Valve estimates that the first orders will begin shipping in February 2022…
Valve announced on Wednesday that their upcoming handheld gaming system Steam Deck will be postponed to February 2022, two months later than originally planned. Valve announced that due to component shortages and supply chain issues that plague many companies around the world, the release of the highly anticipated portable gaming PC has been postponed to February 2022. Unfortunately, Valve had to confirm that the preliminary date could not be met. According to our updated version estimates, Steam Deck will be shipped to customers in February 2022.
Valve announced via email and blog post that Steam Deck was originally scheduled to release in December 2021, which would be a potentially perfect holiday gift, but with this new delay, you’ll have to look elsewhere for gifts. Anyone with pre-orders will queue but will be rejected as a result, Valve said in a post. Anyone who has received a pre-order will retain their online seat, while Valve will begin accepting new pre-orders in February. The good news is that anyone who has already managed to block their order will keep their place in the queue, so those who were expecting December delivery should be included in the new February window.
The company attributes the delay to material shortages caused by global supply chain problems that affect almost every industry around the world earlier this year Nintendo lowered its Switch sales forecast due to the shortage. Estimated booking dates will soon appear for those who pre-ordered for Q2 2022, but Valve notes that other booking owners will keep their seats online and the dates will be reset accordingly.
This ongoing chip shortage is set to continue way into 2022 despite the efforts by legacy manufacturers, it will continue to affect the production of popular hardware like Steam Deck, PS5, Xbox series S/X and GPUs. This ongoing shortage is not something that only Valve will suffer the highly rumored Switch 2 will also take a hit if it came next year. This delay also gave Valve time to put in the necessary check and fixes to further polish the Steam Deck, it will also give developers more time to get their Windows games ready to work on Steam Deck.
At least a two-month delay in the delivery of equipment will give Valves Deck and Proton more time to consolidate these commitments. The company’s announcement on Wednesday confirmed that all orders were “delayed to two months,” which means the SteamOS device will not reach customers until February 2022 – shortly thereafter. Valve said that they will update their shipping estimates – with the new delivery date everyone in the queue will be two months back from the original estimate.
Valve has shared the news on how the company will give Deck Verified status to games: Games on Steam are eligible for this certification if they work well with the Linux-based SteamOS 3.0 and have the proper control scheme for the Steam Decks joysticks, buttons, triggers, and touchscreen.
Regardless, some of the best Steam game developers aren’t ready yet to provide voice support. The company required buyers to order by pre-ordering with a verified Steam account, with at least one purchase of the game on the account before June 2021, and with a pre-order fee of $ 5. Fans arriving late for the party should expect a two-month delay on the delivery date.
