Valve has confirmed its Steam Deck handheld PC gaming console has been delayed until February 2022, around two months later than the initially planned December 2021 launch.
The firm behind the Steam Store says production goals have been hit by supply chain issues in what is becoming an all-too-familiar story for tech firms struggling to get their devices to market.
The company apologises for the delays and says that it’ll be updating gamers on reservation date estimates in near future. So far, the company hasn’t allowed users to order the device, only enabling them to make a reservation and enter the queue.
In a post on the Steam Store, the company writes: “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.”
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It is a blow for gamers looking forward to receiving the console – which promises to do for portable PC gaming, what the Nintendo Switch has done in the console realm – before Christmas.
It’s much more powerful than the Switch, thanks to the AMD Zen 2 CPU and an AMD RDNA 2 GPU with 16GB of RAM, and will offer a 7-inch LCD touchscreen display with a 12800×800 resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate. There’s also masses of storage, up to 512GB, which is expandable via microSD.
Starting price for the 64GB model is £349 / $399, but you can pay £569 / $649 for the 512GB model. Naturally, games will be available via the Steam Store.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
