Steam Deck Delayed To February 2022

While 2021 has seen many major game delays, with a massive slate of big-name titles posed to launch in the early months of 2022, we can now add a handheld console to the list. Valve’s upcoming handheld, the Steam Deck, is getting pushed from its holiday 2021 release window to February of next year.

This delay is yet another product of an ongoing global shortage of supplies that has affected multiple manufactures. Recently due to this crunch, Sony also announced that they would be lowing their production of PlayStation 5’s for the Holiday season by about 1 million units.

In an update on Steam, Valve apologized for the delay, stating:

We’re sorry about this. We did our best to work around the global supply chain issues, but due to material shortages, components aren’t reaching our manufacturing facilities in time for us to meet our initial launch dates.

The delay itself is only about two months, and based on the statement there are no intrinsic issues plaguing the systems development. It is an unfortunate turn of events, but unavoidable given the state the world is in currently.

When the console was initially made available for pre-order it used the old school style of allowing people to reserve a unit several waves in advance. With this delay, it means that the already established queries, which had games already waiting for their unit to be available a few months out, will now have to wait slightly longer for theirs to become available. They made sure to note that pre-orders will not be affected outside of this delay, and will keep their place in line.

The Steam Deck is Valve’s attempt at creating a handheld computer in a size that compares to that of the Nintendo Switch. Those who have been lucky enough to try the device have noted that the games they have played on it have run great. These games range from Horizon: Zero Dawn, to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

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