Steam’s newly announced Deck handheld console is getting plenty of attention. However, much like the Steam Summer/Winter sales, Valve’s servers aren’t quite able to tolerate the sudden influx of gamers wanting to reserve their Deck. This is despite the fact that the console is priced at a rather hefty $399. While this may not seem that much considering the fact that it’s an AIO mini-PC, but its main competitor, the Switch is priced $100 lower at $299.
The first units of the Steam Deck are slated to start shipping in December, and its biggest advantage over rival consoles is going to be better hardware supply. Both the PS5 and the Nintendo Switch have been suffering from an insatiable demand from fans, often resulting in increased prices and scalping.
Valve is taking an alternative approach to pre-orders with 5 buck reservations per unit to prevent hoarding and scalping, but it doesn’t look like it’ll work. Multiple eBay listings claiming confirmed orders are selling the Deck with expected delivery in Q2 2022.
Multiple users on social media are reporting that Valve’s servers are crashing when trying to reserve a unit, throwing up various different kinds of errors, many of them rather bizarre.
