Order fulfillment for Steam Deck is going to pick up speed, according to a new update from Valve, as “Many of the supply chain gaps that hinder Steam Deck are rapidly clearing up.” The business continues by saying that it can “create more Decks faster than ever before.”
Although the specific components in the Steam Deck that caused the manufacturing snag are unknown, it’s probable that the recent use of PCI express 3.0 x2 SSDs in addition to the drives that were made to the original specification of PCI express 3.0 x4 has facilitated production. Late last month, Valve said that one of its production obstacles was the higher-bandwidth SSDs. If you’ve already paid your $5 deposit for a Deck, your order is “solidly” scheduled for delivery during the fourth quarter of 2022 (October to December) and, barring a major emergency, you may expect to receive it this year. All subsequent Deck orders will soon fill that delivery window and begin to extend into the following year. Additionally, those customers who were previously expected to stop using Deck Heck “after Q3 2022” have had their orders expedited and should start receiving their purchase emails by the end of September.
However, I still have to wait, as Tyler Colp, a fellow PC Gamer writer, and I are stuck in the Deckless void until sometime in Q4. The relative assurance that our new consoles will be available by the end of the year is still good. It’s uncommon to receive good news in this world, and it’s especially unlikely when it comes to timelines for product fulfillment.
Even after all these years, I still prefer Valve’s business model to the fresh hell of GPU and console scalping. Everyone receiving a spot in the line is a promise of some sort of fairness. The philosopher in me wants to argue that we could benefit by delaying satisfaction when it comes to our video games and toys as well. Deck Heck might actually develop some personality.
