It’s Monday, and Valve has sent its next weekly batch of Steam Deck order emails to people who have reserved one of the coveted handheld gaming PCs. But if you are still eagerly waiting for your email to come through, there’s good news: Valve says it’s “ramping up” Steam Deck shipments, sending more order emails every week, and “sometimes” plans to send them twice per week.
Welcome to Q2! We’ve just sent out the first set of order emails to Q2 reservers (in order of reservation time). Starting today we’re ramping up Steam Deck shipments, and will be sending more order availability emails every week. Sometimes even twice a week! pic.twitter.com/54TAoCQXfd
— Steam Deck (@OnDeck) April 4, 2022
Valve had alluded to the possibility of a ramp-up. “In production terms, [production] will ramp very quickly,” Valve’s Lawrence Yang said in a February interview with IGN. “In the first month — very quickly — we’ll be in the tens of thousands. By the second month, we’ll be in the hundreds of thousands. And beyond that, it will grow even quicker.” Hopefully, those estimates are still in line with what we can possibly expect for the production of new units.
It’s unclear if the increased production will cause order estimates on the Steam Deck website to move up or if current estimates already reflect the planned ramp, and Valve didn’t immediately respond to a request for clarification. (Selfishly, I’m wondering this because I’d really like to place my estimated Q3 order sooner.)
If you are lucky enough to order your own Steam Deck, you should know that you might run into some bugs or issues with the device, though Valve is pushing frequent updates to fix things. If you want to get an idea of what to expect, check out my colleague Sean Hollister’s review and one month later FAQ.
