Steam Deck has been delayed two months due to “material shortages”

Surprising no one, Valve has announced that the Steam Deck has been delayed, citing material shortages. Supply chain issues have been a hot topic for some time now. PC owners have lamented the lack of easily attainable GPUs and CPUs, preventing them from upgrading to the latest and greatest tech. And it’s not just PC owners, but PlayStation and Xbox fans also know the sting. Valve hasn’t been immune, and the Steam Deck is now on a release schedule of February 2022.

Valve revealed the delay moments ago in a brief message. It was posted to the Steam news page, and those who have pre-ordered the portable gaming machine have heard it via email. In the message, Valve apologizes for the change in the launch date.

“The launch of Steam Deck will be delayed by two months,” writes Valve. “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.”

Steam Deck delayed to hopefully February next year

The new release window of February 2022, however, isn’t concrete. According to the company, it’s actually taken from “updated build estimates.” This likely sounds concerning, as it could suggest that another delay may be in order before the new date. But there’s not much to gain in the doom and gloom of it all. Those who have preserved their device will, of course, see their release estimates changed shortly on the Steam Deck page.

“Based on our updated build estimates, Steam Deck will start shipping to customers February 2022,” Valve wrote. “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. Reservation date estimates will be updated shortly after this announcement.

“Again, we’re sorry we won’t be able to make our original ship date. We’ll continue working to improve reservation dates based on the new timeline, and will keep folks updated as we go.”