Friday, January 14th 2022
Valve Set to Start Shipping its Steam Deck in February
For those that have placed an order for a Steam Deck, Valve had good news today, as barring any last minute issues due to the current conditions in the world, be that the pandemic, supply issues, shipping or some other unforeseen event, Valve should start shipments of the Steam Deck to its customers in February. The company didn't give much else in terms of information about what stage the production is in, but did at least give a small update on what's going on with regards to the software side of things.
Valve provided a photo of several development devices running their latest production build of the SteamOS, which appears to show some kind of test or diagnostics screen. The company is apparently also busy working on its Steam Deck Verified program to make sure that as many games as possible will work with the SteamOS and Steam Deck once it arrives in the hands of its customers. As such, Valve has been seeding more developer units to game developers and the company doesn't appear to have been stingy either, as it claims to have sent "hundreds" of units in the last month and is apparently approving and shipping further units to more developers. It'll be interesting to see if the Steam Deck can win over conventional PC gamers to a more portable device or not and how well games will play on it in the end.
Source:
Valve
Valve provided a photo of several development devices running their latest production build of the SteamOS, which appears to show some kind of test or diagnostics screen. The company is apparently also busy working on its Steam Deck Verified program to make sure that as many games as possible will work with the SteamOS and Steam Deck once it arrives in the hands of its customers. As such, Valve has been seeding more developer units to game developers and the company doesn't appear to have been stingy either, as it claims to have sent "hundreds" of units in the last month and is apparently approving and shipping further units to more developers. It'll be interesting to see if the Steam Deck can win over conventional PC gamers to a more portable device or not and how well games will play on it in the end.
18 Comments on Valve Set to Start Shipping its Steam Deck in February
Nothing can win over the convenience and customizability of PC, especially not a portable console with a small screen. For holidays, it will be nice, though.
I was lucky enough to buy my RTX 2070 in the middle of the shortage through a random ebay auction that I didn't even intend to bid on at first. For people who are less lucky, AMD APUs are readily available. Game technologies aren't developing so fast that you would need the latest and greatest anyway. A GTX 980 - 1060 or RX 480 is still fine for 1080p. If you're happy to sacrifice some settings or scale down in resolution, you're OK with even less. Postponing a monitor upgrade is a good way to circumvent the GPU shortage. I remember when one had to buy an entirely new PC every two years just to be able to run the newest games, but those times are over. Much of our modern needs aren't needs, but artificially generated wants. Whoever says that one can't live without 4K 165 Hz and that 40-60 fps gaming is unacceptable is gravely mistaken.
Another thing is that a small screen and a few game controller buttons and sticks will never replace my 24" monitor and mechanical keyboard. Don't get me wrong, it's a fascinating piece of tech, and I'm very excited to read the first reviews, but it's not a PC replacement by far. :)
Looking forward to seeing the docking station they pair it with.
Best,
LC
If someone says they are gonna run their Steam Deck as a PC (and not only a handheld gaming device) they are not wrong, it fits the broad term.
Saying a laptop is not a PC however, is factually wrong.
I'd class that as close to a pc as a laptop and considerably more so than any set top box ,car or fridge.
And I sure as hell will be messing with one heavily , one day :).
Valve almost had me a buyer on this one if it wasn't for that one issue.
You'd expect an enthusiast community to know better and at the same time you know it's bound to happen. Sheeesh...