Valve fixed its supply chain woes and promises to catch up current backlog by year's end

[Cal Jeffrey]

TL;DR: Valve's Steam Deck has been a success, but the company has struggled to meet demand. The company has resolved kinks in its supply chain and said it could catch up with its backlog by the end of the year, barring a massive influx of new reservations. However, the economic downturn and contraction of the tech sector have undoubtedly contributed to a decrease in demand for the handheld PC gaming gadget.

On Friday, Steam posted good news about Steam Deck production. Valve says that it has alleviated some of its supply chain constraints and has been able to ramp up manufacturing. As a result, it moved most of the Q4 reservation queue to Q3, while the rest of its existing orders will "solidly" receive their Decks by the end of the year.

Most customers expecting to get their order near the end of the year can look for it to arrive between now and the end of September. The 2022 queue still has some room for more orders based on current production projections, so if you want one this year, order soon. Valve says that supplies are still somewhat limited, so the remaining 2022 units could get reserved fast.

Customers can reserve a unit at Valve's dedicated Steam Store page for a $5 deposit. The 64GB Steam Deck costs $399, 256GB goes for $529, and the 512GB unit is $649. Valve says if the queue overflows for any version, new reserves will move to the first quarter of 2023, and the store page will adjust shipping times accordingly. As of publication, all three models are still slated for Q4 deliveries.

Great news: Everyone who currently has a reservation can get their Steam Deck by the end of this year! We've cleared up supply chain issues, a bunch of folks got moved up to Q3, and all other reservations are now in Q4.

More details here:https://t.co/Xj2yEHqpKZ pic.twitter.com/floa2xZelK

— Steam Deck (@OnDeck) July 29, 2022

The Steam Deck's backlog has been a bumpy ride. Valve began taking reservations in July 2021, and they went fast. Scalpers scooped up many and sold them for up to $1,000. By the end of the month, Valve vaguely estimated new reservations to be delivered some time "after Q2 2022."

Despite the longer delivery times for new orders, the company still expected to ship the first units in December 2021. However, by November, Valve realized it was not going to meet production goals and delayed the release until February 2022. It barely met that deadline, with the first Decks going out on February 28.

Initial reviews were mostly positive, and less than a week after the first units shipped, Gabe Newell was already talking about a Steam Deck 2. While it's not unusual for companies to start planning for a follow-up console so close to the release of the current generation, supply constraints were still so tight for the handheld that scalpers were getting up to $3,000 per unit on eBay.

Fortunately, Valve boosted Q2 2022 shipments slightly in April, alleviating some of the strain. This second boost will still not catch up with the backorder pileup, but at least some customers can expect an earlier delivery than originally promised.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/95472-valve-fixed-supply-chain-woes-promises-catch-up.html

 

[R00sT3R]

I'd really like one, but not with that appalling screen and poor, even by mobile standards, battery life.

If they can go some way to fixing those issues in Steam Deck 2, I'll bite.

 

[Nobina]

"Everyone who currently has a reservation can get their Steam Deck by the end of this year!"
Don't worry, you only have to wait up to 4 months for your toy to arrive.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

I'd really like one, but not with that appalling screen and poor, even by mobile standards, battery life.

If they can go some way to fixing those issues in Steam Deck 2, I'll bite.

5 hours battery when playing emulators/older games seems perfectly reasonable to me.

 

[Burty117]

I got my Steam Deck last week. I absolutely love it. Couldn't be happier.

Valve have done an incredible job here, the OS is actually really good. I thought I'd be itching to install Windows but nope, it's actually solid and fairly well thought out.

Gives me hope for Linux gaming in general to be honest.

 

[shark975]

Steam deck sales must be quite low that even in this tech starved environment they are catching up so quickly. not a lot of orders after the initial flurry.

I have one on order was planning on flipping probably, but I'm wary now there wont be any resale market soon, as valve themselves says. I'll keep an eye on it.

I might keep it if destiny 2 played on it, it would literally be the only way to play d2 natively on the go, but nope...

then again theres the fact I'm old and have basically zero use case for playing games on the go. if I am out I would much rather be enjoying life anyway than trying to play video games. I dont travel and if I did seems like a series s or something would fit the bill better for hotel room destiny anyway.

I have the strong feeling given the battery life and size, that whatever the intent 95% of the play on this thing is being done at home, which means people are subjecting themselves to a subpar experience (low setting, small screen, 720p etc) why again?

I wish bungo would just make a switch d2 port based on the 360 code in d1, that'd work and be a lot simpler and 199 for switch lite.

 

[Burty117]

I have the strong feeling given the battery life and size, that whatever the intent 95% of the play on this thing is being done at home, which means people are subjecting themselves to a subpar experience (low setting, small screen, 720p etc) why again?

I wish bungo would just make a switch d2 port based on the 360 code in d1, that'd work and be a lot simpler and 199 for switch lite.

This entire comment just doesn't make sense. 360's architecture is vastly different to the Switches and wouldn't make anything simpler.

On top of this, rail on the Deck for being a subpar experience just to then say "I wish they had a switch port"...

I own both and I truly don't get the hate the Steam Deck gets, specially non-sensical rubbish like this.