The new Steam Deck hardware from Valve may have initially had a positive community reception, but trouble with reservations have left many fans unable to get their hands on the chance to buy one.
Steam Deck is a new handheld system from Valve that will play the vast majority of Steam games. It is commonly compared to the Nintendo Switch in its portability, but will play full PC games and has a permanently attached controller.
Valve has put an unusual anti-scalper queuing system in place for the Steam Deck, to make sure the majority of orders are legitimate. However, this system quickly backfired as the flood of attempts to place reservations caused temporary server shutdowns. Now that the servers are back up, potential buyers are discovering that filled reservation slots are being sold on eBay by scalpers for massively inflated prices, with some even auctioning off the privilege to be in the first round of shipments.
Reservations for the Steam Deck are selling out incredibly fast, so the placement of reserved spots on eBay is undoubtedly frustrating. Coupled with the system's surprisingly low price point, the hugely increased prices when buying through a scalper are likely infuriating for fans. Valve's attempt at stopping scalpers was an interesting new method, but one that ultimately failed to achieve its goal, as the system stays up on eBay for prices surpassing $3,000.
As with the PS5 and Xbox Series X, the Steam Deck's shortage means many gamers will have to either wait for wider availability or spend massive amounts of money on the new hardware. Fortunately, unlike the PS5 and Series X, the Steam Deck is designed to play PC games. This means that any games playable on the Steam Deck are also already playable on regular PCs, so those unconcerned with portability will not have to leap into this concept immediately.
While the Steam Deck is an intriguing piece of new technology, it is important to remember that the system is not designed to replace a gaming PC. Scalpers are a frustrating part of any new device's market and absolutely need to be stopped to keep the community in a healthier state, but they do not have the final say on price and availability. While the scalpers are indeed frustrating, chances are most potential buyers can already play the games fine on their current PCs as graphics card manufacturers try to combat the cryptocurrency problem.
The Steam Deck is due for release in December 2021.