Valve wants you to pre-order the Steam Deck, but they also want to prevent scalpers and scammers from getting their hands on multiple copies of the new mobile gaming-pc. How can they achieve this? We walk you through the somewhat complicated pre-order process Valve has in place for the Steam Deck.
Valve dropped a bomb on the gaming world and everyone is hyped for the Steam Deck, or in Valve’s words, “the most powerful, full-featured gaming handheld in the world.”
They definitely outdid Nintendo with their rather flat and disappointing OLED Nintendo Switch model also announced recently.
Valve Steam Deck Release Date
The Valve Steam Deck comes in three different versions with different storage capacities and shipping starts in December 2021. This Christmas, customers in the UK, EU, US, and Canada should be able to get their hands on a Steam Deck. Other countries will have to wait until 2022 according to Valve.
Where to pre-order the Valve Steam Dec
The Steam Deck can be “reserved” not pre-ordered, on the Steam Website from July 16 July starting at 1pm EST. The Steam Deck is limited to one per customer and carries an extra $5 fee which is taken off the balance of your total purchase when you place your order for the device. Steam is making a distinction from pre-order and reserve, but no worries, we will explain this detail below.
How do you Pre-Order/Reserve the Steam Deck?
You need to qualify to be able to join the reservation system Valve has set up for the Steam Deck. You qualify if…
- you have an active Steam account.
- your Steam account is in one of the following regions: UK, EU, US and Canada.
- you have made a purchase on Steam prior to June 2021.
If you meet all three requirements, you will need to then join the reservation queue within 48 hours of the reservation system going live. Once you join, Valve will contact you when stock becomes available.
Everyone suspects that stock will go extremely fast so, be ready to join the queue at the literal second it goes live.
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