Steam Deck Devices Won’t Be Shipped Until February 2022
Valve says global supply chain issues are causing a delay.
Valve‘s highly-anticipated all-in-one gaming device Steam Deck will not be delivered to customers until February 2022, the company has announced.
In a statement, Valve said that global supply chain issues led to them pushing back the launch date.
“We’re sorry about this — we did our best to work around the global supply chain issues, but due to material shortages, components aren’t reaching our manufacturing facilities in time for us to meet our initial launch dates,” Valve said. “Based on our updated build estimates, Steam Deck will start shipping to customers February 2022.”
The company added that February will now be the new start date of the reservation queue and all reservation holders get to keep their place in line. Reservation date estimates will be updated accordingly.
The company first touted Steam Deck in July, bringing an entire library of Steam games and features into a portable device. Reservations opened on July 16, with lower storage models starting at $399 USD while the larger storage option is available for $649 USD.
The device runs on a customized AMD chip optimized for handheld gaming. It features built-in customizable storage options — 64GB eMMC, 256GB NVMe SSD or 512GB NVMe SSD — and can be augmented with a microSD card. Stereo speakers allow for stunning audio clarity, while the onboard 40-watt hour battery provides “several hours of play time for most games.” There’s a single USB-C jack that can be used for charging or connecting to peripheral devices, while WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity allow for links to a number of wireless add-ons.
In related news, several game studies have written an open letter to Valve criticizing its decision to ban crypto-based titles.
