Valve has just announced that its high-demand but scarce Steam Deck is now open for preorders in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The company told The Verge that the first batch of reservations will be fulfilled later this year, with shipments to kick off in Japan. Additional units will be shipped to the rest of the countries in the following weeks.
Reservations will be facilitated through Komodo, a site that also sells Valve’s Index VR headset for PC as well as other games and gaming merchandise.
The Steam Deck will retail from 59,800 yen (~USD447) for the base model, working up to 99,800 yen (~USD746) for the range-topping 512GB storage model. A small 1,000 yen refundable fee is applicable for reservations.
In the US, the baseline 64GB model goes for USD400, 256GB model is priced at USD530, and 512GB retails for USD650.
The handheld gaming PC has been in high demand the moment it went for sale online last year and Valve has been doing its best to keep up.
“We’re excited to announce that we’re going to be able to fulfill demand sooner than we had estimated for everyone in the reservation queue,” Valve wrote in a recent blog post. “Many of the supply chain shortfalls that affect Steam Deck are gradually clearing up, and we’re continuing to ramp production, so we’re able to produce more Decks faster than ever before.”
Many customers who were in the “Q4 of later” window have been bumped up to “Q3 (July-September)” window. Everyone else can expect their orders to be fulfilled within the Q4 (October-December) window.
The Steam Deck is the Nintendo Switch of gaming PCs, powered by a quad-core AMD APU that promises that you can “bring your Steam library of games with you.” With a 400-nit 7-inch IPS LCD (1280x800px) display and typical tactile gamepad controls, it runs the Linux-based SteamOS 3. An optional Docking Station allows you to prop up the Steam Deck while connecting to external displays, wired networking, USB peripherals, and power.
Unfortunately, for Malaysian fans like me, there is no news if this critically-acclaimed portable gaming PC will ever reach Malaysian shores. For those with deep pockets and low patience, local gaming store Impulse Gaming briefly offered limited units sourced from overseas resellers in February. Maybe reach out to our friends in Japan, then?
In any case, let’s hope it’s more a question of when rather than if, eh?
