This year, video game company Valve announced Steam Deck, their very first handheld gaming PC. Steam Deck sold out in minutes on their website in July when the first reservations opened, which Valve made exclusively available for their previous buyers. Ever since, Steam Deck has gained a following of gamers who are enthusiastic about joining the Valve community and waiting for their own opportunity to order. Steam Deck was originally supposed to begin shipping its first orders in December 2021, landing perfectly during the holiday season, but the wave of pre-orders became so high that Valve had to delay all shipments until February 2022.

Getty Images/Image Source/Eugenio Marongiu

Valve posted their full update on the shipment delay in a blog post and emailed it to everyone on the reservation list. Their crew explained to its buyers, “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.” In other words, with the rampant effect that the current state of the global supply chain is having on all types of tech products, it has been almost impossible for Valve to keep the timeline they had planned for Steam Deck’s development.

Currently, the most you can do on the Steam Deck website is add the device to your wishlist. This places you in a queue so that when inventory is available, Valve will reach out to each buyer in order by which they reserved their device in the size of their choosing. With their update, Valve assured “all reservation holders keep their place in line but dates will shift back accordingly,” so no one will lose their spot in the queue. If you have been thinking of purchasing, it is best you add yourself to the queue now, so that you can still receive your Steam Deck by the end of 2022. The first shipments of Steam Deck will be only available in ​​the US, Canada, the UE, and the UK.