Valve just announced that the Steam Deck release date is being delayed by two months.
The company announced the delay in a blog post on November 10, blaming the supply chain crunch for the delay in shipments, which are expected to now begin in February 2022.
"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 said.
"Based on our updated build estimates, 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. Reservation date estimates will be updated shortly after this announcement."
The Steam Deck was originally set to ship in December 2021, giving it ideal holiday gift potential, but with this new delay, you'll have to look elsewhere for gift ideas for the PC gamers in your life (if you need help, check out our Black Friday PC gaming deals page for ideas and current sales ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday).
Analysis: the supply chain crisis comes for us all, in the end...
This latest news about the Steam Deck delay shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to the semiconductor and supply chain crises over the past several months.
The novel coronavirus pandemic has hit major manufacturing regions in Asia particularly hard, so the steady stream of tech products we've become accustomed to over the years really isn't sustainable when parts suppliers and assemblers have to shut down production temporarily after outbreaks or need to reduce capacity in order to comply with safety guidelines.
While frustrating, this is going to be the case for all sorts of products in the months ahead, from the latest MacBooks and iPhones to the latest graphics cards and even basic telecom equipment like routers and Wi-Fi extenders.
It is just something we are going to have to get used to since even after the supply chain problems work themselves out, we are likely to experience similar disruptions in the future as we become more and more dependent on tech products for just about everything.
- Check out the best free Steam games
