TL;DR: Valve’s Steam Deck has been successful, however the firm has struggled to fulfill demand. The corporate has resolved kinks in its provide chain and stated it might meet up with its backlog by the tip of the yr, barring an enormous inflow of recent reservations. Nevertheless, the financial downturn and contraction of the tech sector have undoubtedly contributed to a lower in demand for the hand held PC gaming gadget.
On Friday, Steam posted excellent news about Steam Deck manufacturing. Valve says that it has alleviated a few of its provide chain constraints and has been capable of ramp up manufacturing. Because of this, it moved a lot of the This fall reservation queue to Q3, whereas the remainder of its present orders will “solidly” obtain their Decks by the tip of the yr.
Most clients anticipating to get their order close to the tip of the yr can search for it to reach between now and the tip of September. The 2022 queue nonetheless has some room for extra orders primarily based on present manufacturing projections, so if you need one this yr, order quickly. Valve says that provides are nonetheless considerably restricted, so the remaining 2022 items might get reserved quick.
Prospects can reserve a unit at Valve’s devoted Steam Retailer web page for a $5 deposit. The 64GB Steam Deck prices $399, 256GB goes for $529, and the 512GB unit is $649. Valve says if the queue overflows for any model, new reserves will transfer to the primary quarter of 2023, and the shop web page will modify delivery instances accordingly. As of publication, all three fashions are nonetheless slated for This fall deliveries.
Nice information: Everybody who presently has a reservation can get their Steam Deck by the tip of this yr! We have cleared up provide chain points, a bunch of oldsters acquired moved as much as Q3, and all different reservations at the moment are in This fall.
Extra particulars right here:https://t.co/Xj2yEHqpKZ pic.twitter.com/floa2xZelK
— Steam Deck (@OnDeck) July 29, 2022
The Steam Deck’s backlog has been a bumpy journey. Valve started taking reservations in July 2021, they usually went quick. Scalpers scooped up many and offered them for as much as $1,000. By the tip of the month, Valve vaguely estimated new reservations to be delivered a while “after Q2 2022.”
Regardless of the longer supply instances for brand new orders, the corporate nonetheless anticipated to ship the primary items in December 2021. Nevertheless, by November, Valve realized it was not going to fulfill manufacturing objectives and delayed the discharge till February 2022. It barely met that deadline, with the primary Decks going out on February 28.
Preliminary critiques had been principally constructive, and fewer than per week after the primary items shipped, Gabe Newell was already speaking a couple of Steam Deck 2. Whereas it is commonplace for firms to begin planning for a follow-up console so near the discharge of the present era, provide constraints had been nonetheless so tight for the hand held that scalpers had been getting as much as $3,000 per unit on eBay.
Thankfully, Valve boosted Q2 2022 shipments barely in April, assuaging a few of the pressure. This second increase will nonetheless not meet up with the backorder pileup, however no less than some clients can count on an earlier supply than initially promised.