For those of you who’ve been longingly (…or jealously) watching as a lucky few get to play around with their fancy, new Steam Decks, well, I’ve got some good news. Valve has announced it will start sending out Q3 Steam Deck reservation emails later this week. And, it also confirmed it’s ramping up actually shipping the devices, so if you have one ordered, it might arrive sooner than originally expected.
Earlier today on Twitter, Valve confirmed that it had sent out the last Q2 Steam Deck reservation emails, and revealed that the company plans to start sending out Q3 emails on June 30. For would-be Deck buyers who’ve been patiently waiting, Valve explained that production on the portable PCs has ramped up, so it’ll be able to ship twice as many Steam Decks per week to customers during Q3.
Long story short, a whole bunch of people will likely be getting a Steam Deck in the mail in the next few weeks, though it probably won’t be delivered to them by Valve’s own Gabe Newell.
If you’re wondering what all this tizzy over emails is, when Valve announced its Steam Deck last year, it knew that demand for the portable PC games machine would far outstrip its immediate capacity to produce them. So it created a reservation system in which people could pay Valve a $5 registration fee to get added to a queue. Then, as Valve produced devices, it could send one of those sought-after emails to the folks in line to see if they wanted to complete a purchase.
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Remember: Once you get the email, you only have three days to claim your reserved Steam Deck. Well, around three days. Valve tweeted that folks who miss the email can contact support for a possible extension, as there is a grace period of undisclosed length. Even so, I’d suggest keeping an eye out and not overlooking that email if you really want a Steam Deck, as we don’t know how long the grace period is.
For folks like me sitting in the “After Q3” camp, this news is bittersweet. I’m happy Valve is ramping up production and shipping of the devices, plus I’m happy people are getting them. But meanwhile, my fiancée keeps asking me about the Steam Deck and I keep sharing not-great news. At least today I can share slightly better-than-bad news!
Oh and if you do get a Steam Deck soon, be careful about modding it. Valve warns you can cause damage to the device by doing things like sticking a bigger SSD in, which can supposedly shorten the Deck’s overall lifespan.
