Ongoing silicon shortages and strains in international logistics have claimed yet another victim this week. Valve's Steam Deck, their handheld PC powered by AMD Ryzen mobile processors, has been pushed back into 2022 from its initial December 2021 shipping date.
Announced through a 'shipping update' for the device, customers have been told to expect initial shipments to begin from February 2022. Their reasoning isn't unexpected; material shortages and supply chain problems have meant that key components haven't reached manufacturers.
Steam Deck Shipping Update
The launch of Steam Deck will be delayed by two months. We’re sorry about this—we did our best to work around the global supply chain issues, but due to material shortages, components aren’t reaching our manufacturing facilities in time for us to meet our initial launch dates.
Based on our updated build estimates, Steam Deck will start shipping to customers February 2022. This will be the new start date of the reservation queue—all reservation holders keep their place in line but dates will shift back accordingly. Reservation date estimates will be updated shortly after this announcement.
Again, we’re sorry we won’t be able to make our original ship date. We’ll continue working to improve reservation dates based on the new timeline, and will keep folks updated as we go.
To view your updated expected order availability and FAQ, please visit https://store.steampowered.com/steamdeck.
The launch of Steam Deck will be delayed by two months. We’re sorry about this—we did our best to work around the global supply chain issues, but due to material shortages, components aren’t reaching our manufacturing facilities in time for us to meet our initial launch dates.
Based on our updated build estimates, Steam Deck will start shipping to customers February 2022. This will be the new start date of the reservation queue—all reservation holders keep their place in line but dates will shift back accordingly. Reservation date estimates will be updated shortly after this announcement.
Again, we’re sorry we won’t be able to make our original ship date. We’ll continue working to improve reservation dates based on the new timeline, and will keep folks updated as we go.
To view your updated expected order availability and FAQ, please visit https://store.steampowered.com/steamdeck.
All reservations have been pushed back in turn, although places in the queue should be preserved. If a particular order wasn't expected until March 2022 it may well be delayed into May or further.
Unfortunately this might not be the final delay the Steam Deck experiences prior to release next year. There's plenty of scope for more delays given the new date falls after holiday periods in both East and West, and we should also note that overall silicon chip production isn't expected to meet demand until 2023 in some quarters.
The Steam Deck starts at £349 inc. V.A.T. and is equipped with semi-custom Zen 2+ APU (with RDNA 2 graphics), 16GB LPDDR5 memory, at least 64GB of on-board storage, and integrated 'console-style' controls. Its OS is a variant of SteamOS, a Linux derivative. More information can be found at https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech.
