Valve says that it is ‘ramping up’ Steam Deck shipments going forward, so with more units being produced, if you’re waiting in that long pre-order queue, you should be getting your handheld gaming PC sooner.
Indeed, Valve confirmed in a tweet that not only are more Steam Deck units going to be rolling off production lines, but as a result, availability notifications sent via email will be coming out faster – sometimes twice a week in batches, now, rather than just once as has been the case thus far.
Welcome to Q2! We've just sent out the first set of order emails to Q2 reservers (in order of reservation time). Starting today we're ramping up Steam Deck shipments, and will be sending more order availability emails every week. Sometimes even twice a week! pic.twitter.com/54TAoCQXfdApril 4, 2022
Of course, it’s also Q2 now as you’ve likely noticed, so Valve reminded us that it’s just dispatched the first volley of order emails to those who are set to receive their Steam Deck in the second quarter.
Analysis: Keep a close watch on that inbox
If you’re in that group of folks who are expecting a Steam Deck in Q2, then be sure to regularly check your email inbox (of the email address linked to the Steam account you pre-ordered from), as remember, you only have 72 hours to pay for the hardware before you miss the window of opportunity to buy.
Valve also issued a follow-up tweet to say that it has clarified “what Q2, Q3, and After Q3 mean in terms of months”, so if you look at the Steam Deck product page, instead of seeing ‘After Q3’ for example, it now says ‘October’.
The company confirms that this is just to make things clearer regarding the arrival timeframe and nothing more, so in other words, no actual reservation timings have been changed in terms of pushing them back (or indeed moving them forward).
However, with the good news that shipment numbers of the Steam Deck are increasing from here on out, reservation dates should be pulled forward a little as time progresses.
Some further good news we recently heard is that there are now over 2,000 Steam games that are Steam Deck ‘Verified’ or ‘Playable’, meaning they work fine with the handheld (maybe needing a little manual tweaking in the latter case).
Via PC Gamer
