The run on Valve’s new handheld console was gigantic. The reservation spaces for the Steam Deck were taken in no time at all, in times of chip and graphics card shortages there is a lively rush, because Valve’s device promises a pretty cool gaming experience, even if we in the editorial team have been looking at the Steam Deck with skepticism so far.
But if you didn’t hit this first wave of postponements and reservations, you are naturally wondering: When can I buy this thing again? And here the dog seems to be buried. Valve is becoming increasingly vague about when the Steam Deck will be available again. The periods of time move backwards without comment – but also forwards.
What information do we have about availability?
The first batch of Steam Decks is currently to be shipped in December 2021. Whoever is one of the lucky pre-orderers can look forward to it. All others have to live with much more vague information.
Originally, delivery should be guaranteed again by Q1 2022 at the latest. That changed several times around July 17th to 20th. Valve communicated in the Steam Deck overview for some versions Q3 2022, for others Q2 2022 as a new date. On July 28th, the ad flipped again – the colleagues from PCGamer captured the information as a screenshot:
The cheapest version of the Steam Deck with 64 GB apparently had a significantly more difficult availability than the two premium versions with 256 and 512 GB. But that changed again on July 29th – quite the opposite. Here is an excerpt of the current information on Steam’s own page:
In the best case scenario, Valve’s database is just spinning and the display will stabilize in the coming days and settle on a clear statement. In the worst case, there are more far-reaching problems with the availability of the Steam Deck and you have to until 2022 for an indefinite period
But hey, that gives you more time to make the best decision for you between the different models. To help you with this, we offer answers to all currently asked questions in our large information overview on the Steam Deck. And we have also already evaluated a survey of which Steam Deck the majority of the GS community is buying. And last but not least, there’s also an analysis video that compares Nintendo’s Switch and the Steam Deck:
13:44
Why Steam Deck and Switch can’t be compared – (and we will anyway)
Feel free to write us in the comments what you think about all of this. And whether you are interested in the Steam Deck at all.