Valve is doubling Steam Deck shipments

Valve has announced that it will be doubling its Steam Deck shipments and that it will begin sending out reservation emails for Q3 products later this week. It has been also confirmed that the shipment of the devices will be accelerated, which will certainly make some buyers very happy. 

In its official Twitter statement posted yesterday, Valve confirmed that the final emails to reserve the Steam Deck for Q2 have been sent out. Moreover, the company will start sending out Q3 emails on Thursday, June 30. For potential Steam Deck buyers who have been patiently waiting, Valve explained that the production of Steam Deck has been ramped up, enabling the company to ship twice as many Steam Deck devices per week to customers in Q3.

Demand is huge

When Valve announced its Steam Deck last year in July, the company knew the demand for the portable PC gaming device would far exceed its production capabilities. One year later, the expectations have come true. According to Valve, the Steam Deck has already become the top seller on Steam since this April, beating current games sold on Steam such as Elden Ring, which is in second place. This shows that demand for the Steam Deck is very high, and Valve probably had to ramp up production anyway to minimize reservation wait times.

Reservations from $5

Because of the high demand, a reservation system was set up which allows users to pay a $5 registration fee to Valve in order to be placed in a waiting queue. Then, when the company produces more devices, it sends one of the aforementioned emails to people in the queue to see if they wanted to make a purchase. 

Once you receive the email, you have only three days to claim the reserved Steam Deck. However, Valve noted that people who miss the email can contact support for a possible extension if three days isn’t quite enough.

Prices remain the same

The Steam Deck remains priced the same as during its launch, starting at $400 for the base 64GB eMMC model. Upgrading to the mid-range model costs $530, but you get 256GB of much faster NVMe storage and a Steam Community profile pack. Finally, the flagship model retails for $649 and offers a 512GB NVMe drive with an anti-glare etched glass screen (though it doesn’t seem particularly durable), and comes with an exclusive carrying case, and an exclusive virtual keyboard theme.

Header: Valve