Buying a Steam Deck no longer requires a reservation

You can finally buy a Steam Deck without making a reservation first. 

Valve announced the streamlined ordering process in a new video which also outlines the release of the official Steam Deck dock as well as the handheld's latest software updates. 

"Supply chain issues kept us from producing Steam Decks fast enough to meet demand, but now, even though the rate of reservations keeps growing, we've been able to increase our manufacturing volume to meet demand," Valve says. 

With this change, Valve also assured folks with existing Steam Deck reservations that their order email is "on its way." 

While production has stabilized enough to remove reservations as a necessary stopgap, Valve was quick to warn that, "depending on how fast the orders come in, we might have to start taking reservations again, but we hope we can keep up." 

Meanwhile, Valve has opened Steam Deck reservations for Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong as the handheld becomes more available globally. Order information for these countries is available here. 

Just last month, Valve noted that Steam Deck reservations were being shipped faster than it predicted, with Q4 reservations going out at "an accelerated pace." The Steam Deck is one of the few pieces of gaming hardware with availability that's been trending positively for some time now, and it seems Valve's pace has accelerated so much that it can skip the reservation thing altogether. With any luck, it'll stay that way. But as Valve cautions, demand may become untenable now that the floodgates are truly open. Here's hoping everyone who wants one of these can get one. 

Valve says the next-gen Steam Deck 2 will be "more open and capable." 

This story is developing…