Valve has announced a significant ramp up in Steam Deck shipments from April, with promises that Q2 2022 reservation orders are currently in the process of being filled. Emails are now being sent out to buyers, and there will reportedly be more order availability updates over the next few weeks.
For those who preordered the Steam Deck back in 2021, it should be great news.
In early March, Valve promised production would increase to ‘hundreds of thousands’ of models by April, allowing the company to fulfil all existing preorders at a fast clip.
‘We imagine that the launch is going to ramp in production terms,’ Lawrence Yang, UX Designer at Valve told IGN in March. ‘It’ll ramp very quickly.’ While exact numbers have yet to be shared publicly, it appears the new round of emails going out directly corresponds to Valve’s increased manufacturing output.
While coronavirus-induced shut downs and delays continue to be an issue for the company – and is likely the reason why the launch of the device has been so truncated – it appears these challenges have largely been overcome. Many first wave reservers already have their hands on a Steam Deck, with Q2 devices set to land shortly.
Should this process go smoothly, it’s likely Valve will soon turn its attention to opening up more global preorders for the device.
When is the Steam Deck coming to Australia?
In late 2021, Valve made clear that Australia is bookmarked for a future Steam Deck launch.
In a Q&A section update, the company said it had nothing solid to announce or confirm yet, but did state it was working hard to make the Steam Deck available in Japan and Australia.
Console preorders remain closed at this time, but given Valve has now hit Q2 2022 ordering capacity, there’s a chance we could see global preorders for the device open within the first half of the year.
As manufacturing capacity is restored and Valve hits those promised production totals of 100,000 devices or more within Q1 2022, there is hope on the horizon.
That said, it does appear the majority of preorders landed in the Q2 2022 bracket, so it’s highly likely that Valve will be stuck fulfilling this reservation list for some time. Should this be the case, expect the global preorder timeline to blow out significantly.
Keep an eye on the Steam Deck Twitter page as the rollout continues. Updates are shared frequently, and should give an up-to-date idea of how reservations are progressing.
