The Steam Deck is, by many measures, Valve's answer to one of the largest problems with Steam: not being able to take it on the go. It has a baked in Steam interface, a ton of power, and can run games like Psychonauts 2 smoothly.
These are all good things, and many are looking forward to the release of the Steam Deck as an alternative to the Switch when it comes to portable game systems. However, those hopefuls will have to wait a bit longer, as it looks like getting the Steam Deck by the end of this year was just a bit too good to be true.
The Steam Deck is officially delayed. In a tweet connecting to a dedicated page, Valve announced that the Steam Deck will not be arriving in one month as initially thought. It is now delayed until February 2022, when shipping will begin. The official reason given is probelms with the global supply chain, specifically materials being unavailable to construct the Steam Decks. With how in-demand the Steam Deck is already through pre-orders, this hardly comes as a surprise.
The Steam Deck is hardly the first device to wind up in short supply due to material delays. As shown in the Steam Deck teardown video, the hardware inside the plastic case is valuable and delicate, and electronics related to gaming are in high demand right now. Similar issues are arising when it comes to PCs looking to get the latest graphics cards and processors, and this is also one of the reasons behind the small amount of PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles available on the market. Of course, scalpers of both the tech components and consoles have not helped either.
On that note, Valve will have to be careful when it rolls out the Steam Deck if it wants to avoid the same mistakes made by Sony and Microsoft with their latest console releases. It doesn't matter how nice the Steam menu looks on the Steam Deck if no one can get their hands on it.
Still, all signs point towards Valve taking the release seriously, something that the delay will hopefully contribute to. Already Valve is hiring people to check the Steam Deck's compatibility, looking to the future of the console. Hopefully this is the only delay and the Steam Deck will soon arrive and make those who purchased it very happy.
The Steam Deck is set to ship in Februrary 2022.