It’s Monday, and Valve has emailed the latest round of Steam Deck purchase emails to those who have placed a reservation for one of the coveted portable gaming PCs. If you’re still waiting for your email, there’s some good news: Valve says it’s “stepping up” Steam Deck shipments, sending more purchase letters per week and “sometimes” planning to send them twice a week.
The potential of a ramp-up had been mentioned by Valve. In a February interview with IGN, Valve’s Lawrence Yang remarked, “In terms of manufacturing, [production] will ramp pretty fast.” “We’ll be in the tens of thousands in the first month – pretty soon.” We’ll be in the hundreds of thousands by the second month. It will continue to develop much faster after that.” Hopefully, such projections are still in line with what we can expect in terms of additional unit output.
Valve did not immediately reply to a request for clarity on whether the additional manufacturing will lead order estimates on the Steam Deck website to move higher or whether existing estimates already reflect the anticipated ramp. (I’m curious about this because I’d like to place my expected Q3 order sooner.)
If you’re lucky enough to get your hands on a Steam Deck, you should be aware that the device may have glitches or difficulties, however Valve is constantly rolling out updates to address these issues. Check out my colleague Sean Hollister’s review and one-month later FAQ for a sense of what to anticipate.
