The Steam Dock, a docking station for Valve's popular Steam Deck gaming console, has been indefinitely delayed, Valve has confessed, citing the usual litany of COVID-related manufacturing challenges.
Having launched the handheld Steam Deck back in February, Valve advised it was planning to make Deck's docking station "available in late spring.” With no news since, many fans began wondering if it'd still hit that target. And sure enough, according to a Steam news post from late Wednesday night, that's no longer the case.
“Due to parts shortages and COVID closures at our manufacturing facilities, the official Steam Deck Docking Station is delayed,” Valve explains. "We're working on improving the situation and will share more info when we have it. This has no effect on production schedule and reservation windows for Steam Decks (different parts, different factories)."
The official Steam Deck Docking Station (and please, lets just call it the Steam Dock, okay?) includes three USB 3.1 ports, one HDMI 2.0 port, and a DisplayPort 1.4 connection, alongside a Gigabit Ethernet jack. Valve confirmed that with this new delay, it'll spend this time to improve the docked experience for Steam Deck.
Third-party docking remains an option
It's not all bad news for Steam Deck owners. For those of you looking to play off your TV or monitor, the Deck's USB-C port means any USB-C dock with its own power supply and video out can output this display. A few third-party options will achieve this, such as the UGreen USB-C Multiport Adapter or j5create USB C Docking Station.
It's hard to completely compare these options against the official docking station, however. Valve hasn't said how much its option will cost, and if we had to speculate, we'd guess Valve is waiting for these external factors to resolve before offering pricing info. Here's hoping it won't be long before we get a further update.
