Despite a slight delay and previous reassurances the Steam Deck is on track for release, people are still skeptical. Hence, Valve has once again said Steam Deck is definitely on track for its February 2022 initial release.
“We’re on track to ship Steam Deck on time. Global pandemic, supply issues, and shipping issues notwithstanding, it looks like we’ll be able to start getting these out the door by the end of February,” Valve said in a new update. “You can view your estimated reservation availability window here, in case you’ve forgotten.”
The company noted that parallel, work and testing for their ambitious Steam Deck Verified program “has been underway.”
Furthermore, we’ll soon be seeing Deck Verified” statuses on a “growing set of Steam games.” The program helps developers test and identify their games with varying levels of compatibility with the portable PC console, with four categories: input, seamlessness, display, and system support.
While the Steam Deck is definitely on track for its February 2022, Valve has also been sending out Steam Deck developer kits “in quantity” so that developers can test their games out and hopefully get the full green Verified check.
They’re apparently approving “another wave of dev kits” with “hundreds” shipped out in the last month, with the company approving and sending out even more as they go through applications.
Finally, the above photo shows off some of the first -inhouse production build Steam Deck units, which they will be testing and evaluating leading up to the full product launch in February and beyond. The last update we had on Steam Deck hardware was that its final packaging was revealed, and earlier development kits were being sent out to developers.
Valve’s Steam Deck is available for pre-order in three flavors: $399 (64GB), $529 (256GB), and $649 (512GB), over on the Steam store.
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