Valve Is Doubling Steam Deck Deliveries, So Check Your Emails

Long story short, a whole bunch of people will likely be getting a Steam Deck in the mail in the next few weeks, though it probably won’t be delivered to them by Valve’s own Gabe Newell.

If you’re wondering what all this tizzy over emails is, when Valve announced its Steam Deck last year, it knew that demand for the portable PC games machine would far outstrip its immediate capacity to produce them. So it created a reservation system in which people could pay Valve a $5 registration fee to get added to a queue. Then, as Valve produced devices, it could send one of those sought-after emails to the folks in line to see if they wanted to complete a purchase.

Remember: Once you get the email, you only have three days to claim your reserved Steam Deck. Well, around three days. Valve tweeted that folks who miss the email can contact support for a possible extension, as there is a grace period of undisclosed length. Even so, I’d suggest keeping an eye out and not overlooking that email if you really want a Steam Deck, as we don’t know how long the grace period is.

For folks like me sitting in the “After Q3” camp, this news is bittersweet. I’m happy Valve is ramping up production and shipping of the devices, plus I’m happy people are getting them. But meanwhile, my fiancée keeps asking me about the Steam Deck and I keep sharing not-great news. At least today I can share slightly better-than-bad news!

Oh and if you do get a Steam Deck soon, be careful about modding it. Valve warns you can cause damage to the device by doing things like sticking a bigger SSD in, which can supposedly shorten the Deck’s overall lifespan.