Steam Deck: first models of Valve’s handheld not to ship until February

No Steam Deck under the tree. The American Valve, owner of the online store Steam, warned that the first copies of its portable console, announced in July, would not be delivered until February, a two-month lag compared to the initial date. This because of “The shortage of materials”, because of which “The components did not arrive on time” in the manufacturer’s factories.

In a press release posted online, Wednesday 10 November, the company explains that it has yet provided time margins to take into account the “Global supply chain issues”, but they have proved insufficient.

Since the start of the 2020 school year, the industry has been hit by a shortage of electronic chips: the Covid-19 has disrupted the suppliers of the few manufacturers capable of producing the finest of them, increasing a delay that they are struggling to fill. since. Especially since the demand, between cryptocurrency mining, the release of new models of consoles and the increase in sales of laptops, has never been so strong.

A new bet for Valve

Developer and publisher of video games, Valve has established itself as a major player in computer video games. For a long time in a virtual monopoly situation, its Steam online store allows it to earn a 30% commission on each game sold there.

After initial unfortunate experiments in 2015, which saw the American company put an uncertain footing in the world of consoles (its Steam Machines, mini-PCs to be plugged into a television, have flopped), Valve now displays the ambition to establish itself in the portable console market. The promise of its Steam Deck is thus to offer a high-end video game machine capable of operating the games present on Steam and whose general appearance is reminiscent of, moreover, that of the famous Nintendo Switch.

If Valve had initially suggested that all of the 52,000 games already available on its online store would work on Steam Deck, the reality is more complex: the console’s operating system being based on Linux, the company explained in October that she was going to test these games (mostly designed to run on Windows) one by one, in order to award those actually compatible with the machine a “certified” badge.

This certification will also take into account a number of factors, such as whether or not the game is compatible with the Steam Deck controller, or whether or not it runs at a resolution of 1280 by 800 pixels – that of the game. Steam Deck screen.

The Steam Deck, which can already be ordered online, will be available in three models, sold between 419 euros and 679 euros. Only the capacities and speed of their respective hard drives vary.