Support us on Patreon
PayPalThe date a great many have no doubt be waiting for, Valve has today officially announced their Steam Deck handheld will launch officially on February 25.
It will go by the date each user put in their reservation of course, starting off with the first lucky few who managed to dodge Valve's server issues at the time. The first batch of order invitation emails go out on February 25, and each person has just 72 hours to make the actual purchase before it moves onto the next person in the queue.
As for shipping? Valve say the first lot will go out from February 28 and they plan to send out a weekly invitation for more people to place an order. That actually sounds pretty awesome, so hopefully it will move along reasonably quickly, it certainly sounds like it.
Valve has also confirmed they're arranging for review units to go out to press sites, so keep an eye out for your favourite sites to get their own hands-on time. Additionally, before the release on February 25 we will also see some preview impressions but they didn't say who would be doing it.
Some very exciting times ahead.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
All posts need to follow our rules. For users logged in: please hit the Report Flag icon on any post that breaks the rules or contains illegal / harmful content. Guest readers can email us for any issues.
No problem!
Got the money saved and set aside for the deck already.. so as soon as I'm able to, that deck be mine.
Got the money saved and set aside for the deck already.. so as soon as I'm able to, that deck be mine.
8 Likes, Who?
slaapliedje Jan 26, 2022
No problem!Same! Looking forward to playing around on it for sure!
Got the money saved and set aside for the deck already.. so as soon as I'm able to, that deck be mine.
6 Likes, Who?
After Q2 for me but I still can't wait for the first honest reviews from you guys. 🐧
3 Likes, Who?
You know, i think this is going to be a mid/long term success. But there will undoubtedly be people who are just miserable contrarians who will try to throw shade on the deck even at the slightest issue, and i think it's pretty obvious there will be many bumps in the road for this device given what it is trying to do. Hopefully we won't see too many low IQ click / rage bait videos from people with no scruples trying to make bank being unfair or deceitful.
Longer term we should expect a steam-deck 2.
(Actually can we get a steam controller 2 please whilst we are at it )
Longer term we should expect a steam-deck 2.
(Actually can we get a steam controller 2 please whilst we are at it )
2 Likes, Who?
slaapliedje Jan 26, 2022
"Your expected order availability: Q1 2022"Lucky! Mine says Q2 2022 (initially said Q1, before they had to delay it over the holidays). I got mine within the first 25 min? The site was being hammered and I had to keep trying. Probably what I get for being paranoid and never saving my CC info anywhere...
Let's gooo!
3 Likes, Who?
slaapliedje Jan 26, 2022
You know, i think this is going to be a mid/long term success. But there will undoubtedly be people who are just miserable contrarians who will try to throw shade on the deck even at the slightest issue, and i think it's pretty obvious there will be many bumps in the road for this device given what it is trying to do. Hopefully we won't see too many low IQ click / rage bait videos from people with no scruples trying to make bank being unfair or deceitful.I do wonder about one thing; On the Index controllers, they made the analog sticks clickable... but you couldn't click and move them around like the majority of joysticks, there was some weird issue with them. Hopefully they have worked that out and the sticks on the Deck behave more like what people are used to.
Longer term we should expect a steam-deck 2.
(Actually can we get a steam controller 2 please whilst we are at it )
My other worry is all the people that will just buy this and install Windows on it... seems to defeat the purpose of the Deck for me; as who wants to deal with another Windows install...
2 Likes, Who?
rustybroomhandle Jan 26, 2022
I bet when the original date was still December they had a whole "Deck the halls" marketing spread planned. 
4 Likes, Who?
But there will undoubtedly be people who are just miserable contrarians who will try to throw shade on the deck even at the slightest issueYep, but that's an issue with every new stuff released, hardware or software, designed for Windows/MAC/Linux/etc.. And it's always the same people... So, why bother about the trolls?
My reservation is scheduled for Q2... Isn't it strange, the closer you get, the less patient you are... Waiting the first 6 months is OK, but the last weeks are horror...
At least no delay / supply shortage as reading the announcement they seem to be pretty confident to be able to deliver for all reservations... that sounds good...
Any news on the docking station? The homepage still says there will be further info on that soon, but that was already written there in the beginning and still no info or order possibility....
4 Likes, Who?
"Your expected order availability: Q1 2022"Lucky! Mine says Q2 2022 (initially said Q1, before they had to delay it over the holidays). I got mine within the first 25 min? The site was being hammered and I had to keep trying. Probably what I get for being paranoid and never saving my CC info anywhere...
Let's gooo!
Well, it's probably some time in March. I've been on vacation when the reservation started, I set the alarm but missed it, being on a noisy promenade at the time. Realised 10-15 minutes later that it was past due, I did my best to get the reservation, but had to re-do the checkout three or four times. So, paradoxically, maybe (hopefully) I was still pretty early, given that the system was clogged in the beginning.
Last edited by pb on 26 January 2022 at 7:01 pm UTC
0 Likes
My other worry is all the people that will just buy this and install Windows on it... seems to defeat the purpose of the Deck for me; as who wants to deal with another Windows install...
im becoming less concerned about this tbh. Sure there will be a glut of tutorials on how to do this and benchmarks that show windows in front by 5-10% (they will cherry pick a bad example of game that's 30% in front or EA / anti-cheat titles). In the end it is an open device and people are free to put what they want on this, if they choose winblow's then that's their loss, certainly their loss of privacy for one, not to mention the originality & OEM presentation that steam deck brings.
And although exclusives is a dirty word around here, that doesn't mean we can't have steam deck performance optimizations that don't get picked up when running the windows version of the game, or UI / control changes that are also missing due to the way a game might detect the deck on windows. Let alone all the background ((spy.. cough)) processes that windows runs that Arch Linux is not (and that wide open Microphone). Or even the power saving kernal updates from AMD that the windows version might not have. As for that dirty word 'exclusives' well if a game is designed for the steam deck because of it's form factor there again might be room for some titles made on Linux that are not 'exclusive' but will run better on Native Linux.
Each to their own, but il be sticking with Linux on the Steam Deck.
Last edited by Lofty on 26 January 2022 at 7:12 pm UTC
3 Likes, Who?
slaapliedje Jan 26, 2022
"Your expected order availability: Q1 2022"Lucky! Mine says Q2 2022 (initially said Q1, before they had to delay it over the holidays). I got mine within the first 25 min? The site was being hammered and I had to keep trying. Probably what I get for being paranoid and never saving my CC info anywhere...
Let's gooo!
Well, it's probably some time in March. I've been on vacation when the reservation started, I set the alarm but missed it, being on a noisy promenade at the time. Realised 10-15 minutes later that it was past due, I did my best to get the reservation, but had to re-do the checkout three or four times. So, paradoxically, maybe (hopefully) I was still pretty early, given that the system was clogged in the beginning.
Yeah mine was 3 or 4 times as well. Probably going to find out you were 5 ahead of me, so barely fit in the Q1 slots.
0 Likes
My other worry is all the people that will just buy this and install Windows on it... seems to defeat the purpose of the Deck for me; as who wants to deal with another Windows install...I think very few people will, and the ones that do will have a miserable time; the reviews of other handheld devices that come with Windows have been universal in saying that Windows is terrible for a device like this. But for the ones that do, and get utility out of it, good luck to them; it's their device to do as they wish.
9 Likes, Who?
Looking forward to the first reviews and hands-on experiences by actual players. Then they only need to make it available in my country of residence :-). Wonder what I'll get sooner ... a new affordable graphics card or the Deck. Right now my bets are on latter.
0 Likes
"Your expected order availability: Q1 2022"Lucky! Mine says Q2 2022 (initially said Q1, before they had to delay it over the holidays). I got mine within the first 25 min? The site was being hammered and I had to keep trying. Probably what I get for being paranoid and never saving my CC info anywhere...
Let's gooo!
Well, it's probably some time in March. I've been on vacation when the reservation started, I set the alarm but missed it, being on a noisy promenade at the time. Realised 10-15 minutes later that it was past due, I did my best to get the reservation, but had to re-do the checkout three or four times. So, paradoxically, maybe (hopefully) I was still pretty early, given that the system was clogged in the beginning.
Yeah mine was 3 or 4 times as well. Probably going to find out you were 5 ahead of me, so barely fit in the Q1 slots.
I started on time and it took me over an hour...
0 Likes
cookiEoverdose Jan 26, 2022
Your expected order availability: Q1 2022Fingers crossed
3 Likes, Who?
My other worry is all the people that will just buy this and install Windows on it... seems to defeat the purpose of the Deck for me; as who wants to deal with another Windows install...I think very few people will, and the ones that do will have a miserable time; the reviews of other handheld devices that come with Windows have been universal in saying that Windows is terrible for a device like this. But for the ones that do, and get utility out of it, good luck to them; it's their device to do as they wish.
I don't see the os being that big of an issue. Both will autostart with steam, which will run in BPM or something. Both os's can do that with no issue. Ideally, if this thing is meant to be a success, the average user shouldn't even notice or care about the OS, just like every other console.
3 Likes, Who?
CyborgZeta Jan 26, 2022
I made my reservation late in the afternoon the day Valve started taking reservations, and my shipping timeframe is "Q2 2022". I don't expect to see mine until Spring.
Which is fine. I'm in no particular rush. Gives me time to get a few good size microSD cards.
Which is fine. I'm in no particular rush. Gives me time to get a few good size microSD cards.
0 Likes
See more from me