There's some good news if you've been waiting to get your hands on a Steam Deck. Valve says it has boosted production and will be shipping more than twice the number of units each week than it has over the last few months.
The company planned to start shipping the device in December, but supply chain issues forced it to delay the Steam Deck until February. It now appears Valve has found the parts and production capacity it needs to build units at a faster pace and get them out to customers more quickly.
Hello! Some great news on the production front. We just sent the last batch of Q2 emails, and we’ll start sending Q3 reservation emails on the 30th.
Production has picked up, and after today we'll be shipping more than double the number of Steam Decks every week! pic.twitter.com/kAHE0zRrV7— Steam Deck (@OnDeck) June 27, 2022
Were you to reserve a Steam Deck now, you likely wouldn't receive it until at least October. However, since Valve is ramping up the volume of shipments, it may be able to bring down the wait time. Hopefully, it will soon get to the point where it can ship a Steam Deck within days of someone deciding to order one.
Valve says those who had an expected shipment window of Q3 will start receiving reservation emails on June 30th. When you do eventually get your Steam Deck, though, it's probably best to avoid swapping out the built-in storage. Valve hardware designer Lawrence Yang warned that the power requirements of off-the-shelf SSDs could cause a Steam Deck to overheat and shorten the lifespan.