The much-awaited hand held console has been released, but boasts a hefty waiting list. Valve has now said Steam Deck shipments are “ramping up”.

Back in January, Valve revealed that its first games console would finally be released the following month. The Steam Deck was first announced in July 2021, but faced delays due to supply chain and shortage issues. To get your hands on one, you needed to place a reservation. Based on a first come, first served approach, people with reservations would eventually receive an order email. Hopeful customers would then have 3 days to reply to this email and place their order. From there, orders were to be shipped in batches.

The first batch of Steam Deck shipments went out on the 28th of February, after the first round of orders on the 25th. Huge demand and popularity has meant that any new reservations could see people waiting until October before they get the chance to order their console.

Working in quarters, Valve has announced its moved onto Q2. This means that the second batch of order emails has been sent out to eager reservers.

Originally promising to send order emails weekly, the new “ramping up” could see emails potentially being sent out twice a week. Valve’s Lawrence Yang said in an interview with IGN in February that “In production terms, [production] will ramp very quickly. In the first month — very quickly — we’ll be in the tens of thousands. By the second month, we’ll be in the hundreds of thousands. And beyond that, it will grow even quicker.” 

It’s not clear whether the increased production means order estimates on the Steam Deck website will move up, or if the current estimates already take into account this new ramping up.

If you’re keen to learn more before getting your own, there are plenty of Steam Deck reviews out there now. Early owners will face some bugs, but Valve has been pretty hot on pushing fixes. The consensus of many reviews is that it’s a console with huge potential, but just needs some fine tuning.