When Valve announced that it would postpone the delivery date of its Steam Deck in November by two months, some people worried about further delays, but the good news is that portable gaming PCs are still on the way. Valve announced last month that due to global supply chain issues, the release of Steam Deck was postponed for two months until February 2022. Valve designer Greg Coomer stated that “all indications are that Steam Deck will ship in February” because of the delay after the initial release window in the winter of 2021.
In addition to building the hardware for the expected release date, Valve also needs to make sure everything is software-ready, including maximizing the game’s compatibility (with Proton). However, Valve has promised further updates in the future, which will certainly be required as we get closer to 2022. Speaking to PCGamer this week, Valve designer Greg Coomer confirmed that the Stream Deck is “going according to plan”. Its new release date, where “all signs” indicate that the first devices will be released in February.
Coomer explained the types of shortcomings that hardware manufacturers have faced over the past couple of years, and he said that given the shortage, the Steam Deck team has identified about 50 “high risk” components that are probably hard to find with the quantities they need.
Valve is expecting to ship millions of Steam Deck, Coomer continued to say that although Valve will ship a large number of Steam Deck to consumers from the first day, due to the nature of the product launch, it will only be sold through Steam, which is no different from most other products and unlike most other game consoles, it will not be retail. The distribution will be more like chess.
Valve has disclosed how many pre-orders Steam Deck received, but Coomer stated that the release of Steam Deck release will be different rather than traditional hardware makers and the company has to supply retail stores. This seems to be a fairly modest effort, but it is important to remember that, unlike competing devices, Steam Deck is only sold remotely and only through Valve.
Although Valves’ track record may not be perfect, due to the success of the Nintendo Switch, handheld gaming devices have aroused the interest of hardware manufacturers. As the name suggests, It is designed to work with Valve’s popular Steam platform, allowing players to play any Steam library anytime, anywhere. Deck also supports Steam features such as chat and remote playback, so you don’t want to miss a lot of things while you are comfortable with the small screen. Yes, and if you’re not a big fan of Steam these days, the deck will also support the Epic Games Store. For now, you can expect the pre-ordered deck to ship in the second quarter of 2022.
The delay in the release of Valves’ handheld game console stems from a worldwide shortage of hardware components affecting many products, most notably the PlayStation 5. Detailed supply chain issues have spilled over to handheld devices at Valves, as well as much of the console and electronics industry. According to Valve’s latest news post, the Steam Deck Shipping Update, the Steam Deck will be delayed two months from its first launch, scheduled in December 2021. Originally scheduled to launch this month, Valve eventually delayed it until February 2022.
The bad news is that this means Valve will not be able to reach the initial December pre-order target, but the good news is that they have enough time to make sure everything is ready for the deck to arrive. This is the statement of deck designer Greg Coomer, who also pointed out that they were “disappointed” at having to postpone the initial release date from the end of this year to next year.
At the actual launch, Coomer refers to the Steam Deck launch as not a so-called paper launch, in which there are actually very few products available (just to give the impression that the company has reached its release deadline.). Thousands of devices are expected to be shipped from the start rather than small numbers but the demand and supply issue means that those who pre-ordered, even so far, still expect their handhelds to hit the market in mid-2022.