Your Steam Deck might be coming by the end of September instead of Q4

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Not only are you getting your Steam Deck by the end of the year, but you might also see your long-awaited handheld gaming PC even sooner than that — Valve has just announced that “a bunch of folks” should see their reservations moved up to Q3 instead of Q4, meaning they’ll get emailed an opportunity to purchase the $400-plus portable by the end of September, if not sooner.

It shouldn’t be much longer to wait after you get that email, either: Valve doesn’t send the emails until the systems are in-hand and ready to ship. If you log into Steam, you can check your reservation here.

Valve doesn’t share reservation or sales numbers for the Steam Deck, but designer Lawrence Yang tells us the “Q3 crew” should now be “a decent chunk bigger” than previously.

Valve has been increasing production of the Deck by leaps and bounds since its original limited launch, moving to twice-weekly emails in April, doubling shipments in June, and ramping again in July. That was enough to not only promise every outstanding Deck reservation would ship by the end of 2022 but also begin launching in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan as well.

Valve also shared today that it’s now getting more reservations on a daily basis than it has at any point since launch. And yet, even if you waited until today to reserve one, it should still ship by the end of 2022. New reservations are still listed as “Q4” on the Deck’s store page.