Word from the Steam Deck foundries is that Valve are significantly stepping up the number of handhelds they ship out to reservation holders. A missive from the official Steam Deck Twitter account claimed they’ll “more than double” the total of weekly shipments, and confirmed that those with order availability estimates in Q3 2022 will start receiving emails to confirm and claim their orders from June 30th.
Unlike the last time Valve ramped up Steam Deck production, it’s not clear if this speedier shipment schedule was already taken into account when listing the availability estimates. But given the Deck technically launched back in February, the waiting list is indeed a long and arduous one, so anything that helps work through it quicker should be welcomed. Maybe Liam will finally get his?
According to another tweet by Valve designer Lawrence Yang, who spoke to Katharine about the Steam Deck just after it was unveiled, emails will continue to go out to reserve order holders in batches – sometimes twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. That’s another acceleration from the initial once-per-week batches that went out on Mondays. As usual, if you made an order and receive the email, you’ll have 72 order to confirm, pay up and get your Steam Deck readied for postage.
It’s all quite the recovery, what with the Steam Deck originally missing its December 2021 launch, thanks in part to the silicone shortages that had also mucked up the availability of CPUs and graphics cards. It will probably still take a few months before every last reservation order is fulfilled, but hopefully this faster production pace can cut down the wait.
If you are in line for a confirmation email, you can prepare for your portable PC’s arrival by reading up on the best microSD cards for the Steam Deck and how to make the most of the Steam Deck’s battery life.
