What just happened? Owners of (and those waiting to own) the Steam Deck who are hoping to buy an official docking station for the console may have to temper those expectations for a while. Valve has announced that the accessory has been delayed from its original late Spring launch, with no new release date given.
Valve posted the announcement on the Steam Deck Events page. The delay is being blamed on factors that have become all too familiar: parts shortages and Covid closures impacting manufacturing facilities.
The good news is that the delay doesn't extend to the Steam Deck itself. The handheld console's production schedule and reservation windows are unaffected as its parts are different from the dock's and it is manufactured at different factories.
The Steam Deck Docking Station, to give it its full official name, received a development update earlier this year that saw its two USB 2.0 and one USB 3.1 ports switched to three USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A connections. Whether the change played a part in the delay is unclear.
In addition to those ports, the official Steam dock has one HDMI 2.0, a DisplayPort 1.4, a Gigabit Ethernet jack, a power port, a USB-C Power Delivery passthrough input, and a USB Type-C cable for connecting to the Steam Deck.
Valve confirmed last year that, unlike the Nintendo Switch, the Steam Deck won't get any sort of performance boost when connected to its official dock.
One thing Valve still hasn't revealed is how much the Steam Deck Docking Station will cost. Don't expect it to be cheap once it arrives, whenever that might be. But you could always just use a powered USB Type-C hub.
In other Valve news, the company's latest Steam survey results show that more people are buying the latest graphics cards as their prices continue to fall closer to MSRP.