Every 3 seconds, someone who preordered a Steam Deck experiences anxiety over what exactly “after Q2” means.Is it July 1st, 2022? Sometime in December? Fall 2023? There are spreadsheets and Google surveys floating around that crowd-source detailed reservation info in the hopes of pinning down when Valve will deliver the year’s hottest gaming device to their doorstep.Fortunately, Valve UX Designer Lawrence Yang has some comforting words that might alleviate that anxiety.
“Hundreds of Thousands” Of Steam Decks Per Month? Appearing on IGN’s Next-Gen Console Watch show, Yang politely declined to answer how many Steam Deck units have been preordered, but he did answer another burning question from executive producer Daemon Hatfield: “What’s the supply situation looking like for the Steam Deck now?”
“We had to delay for supply chain reasons; those continue to be issues but we are surmounting them,” Yang (who formerly worked as a Human Interface Designer at Apple AAPL ) says.“We imagine that the launch is going to ramp in production terms.
It’ll ramp very quickly.”
Ok, that’s a somewhat consoling response, but thankfully Yang continued with some semi-specific numbers:
“In the first month we’ll be in the tens of thousands, by the second month we’ll be in the hundreds of thousands.”
If we consider March 2022 the first full month that Steam Deck is shipping, Yang’s answer means that by April 2022, Valve will be capably producing at least 200,000 Steam Deck units per month.
MORE FOR YOU ‘Demon Slayer’ Season 2 Finally Has An Actual 2021 Release Date Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 Not A Sure Thing, Says Director ‘Genshin Impact’ Still Refuses To Increase Anniversary Rewards, Despite Fan Outcry Language can be a tricky thing, though.Yang’s use of the phrase “we imagine” could translate to those production numbers being nothing more than wishful thinking; an aspiration.
Or it’s a carefully considered prediction based on the working knowledge Valve has about its supply chain.
Obviously, future Steam Deck owners are crossing their fingers for the latter.And as someone who used to work in marketing, I guarantee Yang was prepped for questions like this and rehearsed how to respond to them.
The “After Q2” Window WILL Get More Specific Yang offered more words of encouragement, specifically for the dreaded “After Q2” crowd.
He says that vague time slot will become “more granular” and Valve will be updating dates for people patiently sitting in that window.
I expect that once Valve has a concrete grasp of its sustained production capabilities (hopefully by the beginning of April), the expected delivery dates will switch to an exact month instead of a quarter.
If you can’t get enough Steam Deck news, check out my full review and stay tuned for deep dives into all aspects of Valve’s new handheld.
Jason Evangelho.
