Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
Valve’s $400-and-up portable gaming PC the Steam Deck went on sale this morning… but you didn’t get an email from Valve, I’m guessing? I didn’t either — and as Valve’s just now explaining, that’s because they’re going out in small batches rather than all at once; the next batch won’t be arriving until Monday, March 7th; and then they’ll go out in weekly batches each Monday, presumably through the month of June.
Did you have a reservation for Q1 2022? You should see your email by the end of March. Q2 2022? They’ll start in April, when I’ll hopefully get mine since I ordered on the very first day (but who knows, the reservation website had a lot of trouble that morning).
And if your reservation says “After Q2 2022,” Valve says stay tuned for “news soon.” Perhaps that means they’ll stop shipping weekly at that point? Valve’s Q3 would normally run July through September.
The good news: Valve won’t send you an invite until your unit is actually ready to ship, you’ll get 72 hours to complete the purchase, your $5 reservation fee counts toward the sale, and you won’t have to pay anything extra for shipping — it’s included. You will, however, have to decide if you’re interested in becoming an early adopter. Like I explain in my Steam Deck review, it’s basically an early access game console.
Got any more questions about the Steam Deck that aren’t addressed in the reviews? Hit me up at [email protected] and I’ll try to answer in an FAQ next week.