Steam Deck 'On Track' for February 2022 Launch - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 17 December 2021 / 3,301 Views
Valve last month announced the launch of the Steam Deck has been delayed by two months to February 2022 due to the global supply chain issues.
Valve designer Greg Coomer in an interview with PC Gamer said the team is optimistic the Steam Deck will hit its February 2022 release.
"We do feel like we're on track for that," said Coomer. "We're still bummed that we had to move from end of this year to beginning of next. But yeah, all the signs are pointing to us being able to ship in February."
Coomer added, "It's a real product launch, so many thousands of people right away are going to receive Decks as soon as we're able to ship them. But even talking about thousands would be quite low compared to the volumes we're shooting for in the first few months."
He did say that the launch of Steam Deck will be different from other products as the plan is to have a "launch that looks like a significant number of users right out of the gate, and then build that over time, rather than having the biggest splash on day one and then generally declining after that.
"If you extend the timeline out through 2022 and all the way to 2023, we expect to be building on our numbers constantly throughout that whole time, to the point where there's many millions of customers if things go the way we think they will, who are using Steam Deck by the end of that year or so, through 2023."
Coomer did reveal the reason the Steam Deck was delayed was due to the difficulty of getting a couple of parts on time.
"The primary reason we had to move from the end of this year to the beginning of next, is a couple of those parts were really hard to get on time," Coomer said. "They ended up being late. It really came down to just a couple. They're in the category of like, microchip type ICs that are hard to get from multiple sources, and when lots of people are clamoring for those parts—just like cars have had those shortages with specific integrated circuits—we were in a similar situation. We almost got to the point where it was smooth sailing out of all those 50 things, but it wasn't quite the case. So it came down to that."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Also, saying in December that they're "on track" for February launch, and very deliberately stopping short of saying that it will definitely happen, isn't very convincing. I'm gonna guess that it actually launches in April.
I bet they're really pissed that they missed the 2021 holiday season, where other gaming hardware was very supply constrained. This will cost them a ton of sales.
its possibly the same reason the OLED switch isn't a pro. they probably designed it as such, but saw the chip shortage and were like hell no, we arn't doing that.
thanks to this nintendo is rolling in more then the 2 next gen consoles.
I wonder how high pre-orders are for this thing.
I don't have the numbers of pre- orders to answer your exact question , but the demand was enough for them to halt further pre - orders , and their limit was hit very quickly in a matter of a day or so iirc , so we know that all stock is sold out meaning it had a high demand but I can't tell you the numbers.
This may be the route I go next time I switch gaming computers. As of now, I have a rtx 2080 supermax, so I think I'll be good for a while. I love the idea of being able to do PC games like I do Switch games.
I'm gonna buy one of these fuckers (unless user reviews after several months say they're crap) to use as a portable Gamepass machine. Not that I have zero interest in playing stuff on Steam on the go, but I just don't see a low-spec PC as particularly appealing for PC gaming. I see it as spectacular for Gamepass play though.
It may be lower spec, but it still isn't a slouch. The graphical capabilities of a base line PS4 with 16GB of ram while targeting a 720p resolution? That definitely will allow some solid performance at that resolution. I'm actually planning on getting the first party dock Valve is also making and have the Deck not only be my PC Switch, but also be my LAN party PC!
Yes, I think it is fine for on-the-go PC gaming right now (I question how it will handle things 3-5 years from now). I'm just saying, I feel like I'll lose less when I use it for Gamepass play (that I would typically be running on console) as opposed to PC games that I'd prefer to run at high-spec.
Why would GamePass require less performance than Steam? Gears5 is the same on Steam and GamePass. Did you mean Xcloud streaming?
What I really mean is portable console quality gaming in scenarios where I don't have to re-buy the games on Steam. So, that'll probably mostly be limited to Gamepass.
Plenty of new PC games don't need PC power houses. The Deck is not a replacement for a high-end PC tower, more of a complimentary piece of hardware but I don't see why games along the lines of Ultrakill won't run fine on Deck.
Mine still says expected delivery would be "After Q2 2022" :( I have no idea how on earth anyone is able to get theirs in February. You couldn't put down the $5 no matter how hard you were trying. I finally was able to get my reservation after 30 minutes of trying.
Mine says : "Q2 2022 ". I pre-ordered maybe 5 minutes in.
Well, I got the most expensive one and it is still Q2 2022 for, not "After". Maybe I was in the first batch, don't know.
Also, someone really downvoting those comments...; some people really need to get more fresh air lol
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