The 512GB Steam Deck may be launching sooner than expected

One of the Steam Deck pre-orders has seemingly brought its release date forward from Q3 to Q2 2022.

Valve’s upcoming Steam Deck handheld console, which will run PC games straight from your Steam library, went up for pre-order last week and it appears the predicted release date for one of the console’s models has already quietly been brought forward for an unknown reason.

As spotted by PC Gamer, the Steam Deck preorder page gives an estimate of its arrival date which is currently around Q2 (April - June) of 2022. This estimate has changed several times for the top model (512GB) since the pre-orders were put up, jumping from Q1 2022 (January - March) to Q3 2022 (July - September).

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This Q3 estimate for the 512GB model was maintained until yesterday when - to the joy of those who were lucky enough to preorder the console - it jumped down to Q2 2022, potentially reducing that painful wait time by three months. Both of the other model variations, however (64GB & 256GB) haven’t moved from Q2 2022.

Despite only being announced just over a week ago, the demand for the Steam Deck is extremely high. During the pre-order process, Steam’s servers struggled with the demand as the website’s connection wasn't very stable and wouldn’t let many people get past the payment stage, if they managed to even get that far, that is.

Why is this console in such high demand though? Well, first of all, it has some impressive specs for a handheld console and, according to the console’s developer Valve, can handle Steam’s entire library no matter what version of the console you manage to pick up. This explains why Valve President Gabe Newell said that Valve had to be "very aggressive" on the Steam Deck's pricing.

Speaking of, here’s what you’ll be looking at paying if you ever do manage to place a pre-order for the elusive new handheld. For the smallest (64GB) model, you’ll be looking at spending $399/£349. For the one-up model which contains 256GB expect to pay $529/£459, and for the model with the biggest memory (512GB) you’ll be charged $649/£569 but this version does come with a bunch of extras as well.

Now wondering what you’ll play first on the Steam Deck? Take a look at our best PC games list for some inspiration.

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training. My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.