Steam Deck’s Initial Ship Date Now Confirmed

Friends, countrymen, fellow PC gamers who long to take their Steam libraries on the go without lugging around a dedicated gaming laptop, lend me your attention. What may well be the most joyous of occasions for the PC gaming scene in recent memory is tantalizingly near. Longtime readers of ours will probably recall that I’ve discussed Valve’s handheld gaming device known as the Steam Deck in two articles by this point. If you’re interested in learning more about the Steam Deck, or haven’t heard of it at all, you can read over my past pieces on the topic here and here.

Although the first orders of reserved Steam Decks were originally planned to begin shipping out sometime in December of 2021, it was announced not too long ago that Valve begrudgingly had to delay that planned shipping window due to the ongoing global supply chain issues. At that time, Valve couldn’t quite pin down a more concrete date for the devices to start reaching those who had reserved them, but this has since changed.

PC Gamer reported yesterday that Valve has now confirmed more specifics about how the device’s initial launch window will work. In case you’ve forgotten or are otherwise unaware, you’ll get an email from Valve before your device ships. This email will instruct you to complete the process of purchasing your Steam Deck if you’ve already reserved one over the past few months. According to Valve and PC Gamer’s report, these emails will begin reaching inboxes sometime around 10am Pacific time on Friday, February 25th, 2022.

Once you’ve received this particular piece of correspondence, you’ll have three days to cough up the remainder of the cash for the model of Steam Deck you reserved. If you don’t do this in time, your reservation will instead be transferred to the next person in line. The five-dollar fee you had to pay in order to formalize your reservation will be applied to the cost of your Deck, so that initial down payment hasn’t been for naught.

Then, come Monday, February 28th, the first wave of Steam Decks will leave Valve’s warehouses destined for the loving arms of their purchasers. As per PC Gamer’s report and Valve’s announcement on this front, there are a fair few things you’ll need to keep in mind if this article applies to you. More specifically, a couple of these are as follows: you cannot order a different model of Steam Deck than that which you initially reserved, and shipping fees will be included in your device’s grand total.

I think that about wraps up this most recent dose of Steam Deck news, folks! If you’re interested in reserving one for yourself, you can do so through the Steam client or via the Steam Deck’s official website. I’m curious: have you reserved a Steam Deck already? If so, which model did you opt for and why? Do feel free to let me know about these topics and sound off on anything else regarding the upcoming Steam Deck in this article’s comments if you’re so inclined!