Valve explains sudden Steam Deck delay

Months after preorders for the Steam Deck went live, Valve has announced that they are delaying the device’s release until February 2022 due to “supply chain issues.” 

In July 2021, Valve announced the Steam Deck, a handheld PC that was instantly considered direct competition to the Nintendo Switch, thanks to its similar form factor and controller setup.

The company revealed that the device would be available in December 2021, and preorders for the Steam Deck went live shortly after the announcement.

However, Valve has officially issued a shipping update for the handheld, in which they explain that supply chain issues have delayed the Deck until February 2022.

Steam Deck delay

On November 10, Valve sent an email to every person who managed to pre-order the Steam Deck with a shipping update for the mini-pc. The email started off fairly simple: “The launch of the Steam Deck will be delayed by two months.”

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Valve didn’t waste time before they apologized, though, as they explained that they did their best to work around global supply chain issues. They went on to detail how components are not reaching their manufacturing facilities fast enough to meet their December launch date.

However, they were able to supply a rough estimate for when the handheld will be able to launch based on updated build estimates — February 2022.

According to Twitter user ‘Gorczy,’ there may be a little bit more time added to some pre-orders, as his reservation for the 512gb version of the Steam Deck says Q2 2022, which would mean his device will be available later than stated in Valve’s email.

Whether or not supply chain issues will continue to delay Valve’s attempt at beating the switch is unknown. We’ll have to wait till February to see what happens.