Steam Deck Just Gave Fans Terrible News

Players waiting to get their hands on the Steam Deck got some terrible news today — Valve just announced its divisive handheld console will be delayed by two months (per the official Steam Deck Twitter account). Initially set to launch this December, players can now expect the first wave of consoles sometime in Feb. 2022.

In a shipping update shared on Steam, Valve apologized and went into more detail, "We're sorry about this—we did our best to work around the global supply chain issues, but due to material shortages, components aren't reaching our manufacturing facilities in time for us to meet our initial launch dates."

Valve went on to assure preorder customers that it would retain their place in the queue despite the delay. Valve said, "Steam Deck will start shipping to customers February 2022. This will be the new start date of the reservation queue—all reservation holders keep their place in line but dates will shift back accordingly."

The Steam Deck is just the latest victim of the ongoing global supply chain shortage. It's had an unprecedented impact on the technology industry, being a primary contributor to the Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and computer chip scarcity many gamers have run into or undoubtedly heard about over the last couple of years. While Valve said it would "continue working to improve reservation dates based on the new timeline," there's only so much the company can do.

Fans seem to feel divided on the announcement, with some accusing Valve of not "paying attention" to the supply chain and others expressing relief that they have more time to save money for the upcoming system. Only time will tell how much the supply chain shortage will affect the Steam Deck's release.