So, James’ Steam Deck review suggests the new handheld PC is pretty good. Good news for Valve, bad news for my wallet. I’ve apparently got a month before I need to commit to buying one, however, according to details laid out by Valve of when emails will go out to those who were first in-line with pre-orders.
“All people who are in the Q1 reservation window on the Steam Deck store page will receive an order email by the end of March. (Q1 is Quarter 1, or January through March),” says a brief post on the Steam site.
“The first batch of emails has already gone out this morning,” it continues. I haven’t received mine, yet.
The next batch of emails will go out on Monday, March 7th, with more being sent out Mondays throughout the rest of March – March 14th, 21st, and the remainder on the 28th.
After that, they’ll move on to those in the Q2 reservation window in April and continue “in a similar fashion,” says the post. That’s my reservation window! “We’re working through our production schedules, and will have news soon for folks in the After-Q2 bucket.”
The Steam Deck was originally meant to ship late last year but was delayed – which is hardly a surprise given the worldwide chip shortage effecting the manufacturing of basically all electronics. You can find out when your reservation window is by signing into the Steam store in your browser, heading to the Steam Deck product page, and scrolling down to the options for the three different editions. Which Deck you chose should have text on it telling you your reservation window.
Alongside preparation to ship the Steam Deck, Valve have been talking to press about it. We spoke to Gabe Newell yesterday, and got his take on NFTs and games industry consolidation.