Valve Spills Steam Deck Release Day Details At Last

We’re just a couple of days out from the release of the Steam Deck, and by now a lot of people who pre-ordered are wondering what happens when launch day rolls around. Valve has finally revealed those details, announcing what its customers can expect on February 25, 2022, and beyond. If you were one of the gamers who got an order in right away and you’ve been on the lookout for when you’ll get the chance to actually pay for your Steam Deck, then this is the announcement you’ve been waiting for.

In addition to revealing these launch day details, Valve also announced new information about the Steam Deck’s dock. The accessory was revealed alongside the portable console last year, but we haven’t heard much about it since then. Details are still fairly slim, but Valve updated us on when we can expect the dock to be available — and, sadly, it seems it won’t arrive in time for the Steam Deck’s launch.

If you were quick on the draw with your Steam Deck reservation and have been a bit concerned that you haven’t heard anything from Valve even with release day looming, you can breathe a sigh of relief. In a news post on Steam today, Valve revealed that it won’t start sending out emails to those who pre-ordered a Steam Deck until 10 AM PST/1 PM EST on Friday, February 25. 

Valve will start sending out emails to those who reserved a Steam Deck in the order the reservations were received. Once you get your email, you’ll then have 72 hours to buy the Steam Deck you reserved (and remember, you won’t be able to switch to a different model). You’ll also have the option to cancel your order, though you can also just ignore the email and have your reservation auto-canceled after 72 hours.

Canceled reservations go to the next in line, so even if the Steam Deck page on the Steam Store is showing that your machine won’t be ready until sometime later in Q1 2022, it might be worth keeping an eye on your inbox just in case someone ahead of you cancels and you get to buy earlier than anticipated. Valve also says that full Steam Deck reviews will be going live on Friday, so we’ll keep an eye out for those.

It’s been a while since we heard anything new about the Steam Deck’s dock, which allows the Steam Deck to connect to an external display just like the Nintendo Switch dock. Valve still plans to release the dock, but sadly, it won’t be ready to go right when the Steam Deck is. Instead, it seems we’ll be waiting a bit longer for the accessory to arrive.

How much longer? That isn’t entirely clear. In that same news post today, Valve suggests the Steam Deck dock has been delayed, saying, “We are also looking forward to getting the official Dock for Steam Deck into customers’ hands. It won’t be happening as early as we wanted, but we’re excited to talk more about it soon and are planning to make them available in late spring.”

With that in mind, we’ll look for more details as we get closer to spring, but it sounds like the dock is still a few months out. We’ll let you know when Valve reveals more, but for now, count on those emails to start going out on Friday.