Valve is expanding Steam Deck shipping to some regions, which could take the handheld console to new heights. The company just announced that pre-orders are now open in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan through Komodo, a site that also sells Valve’s Index VR headset for PC among other games and gaming merchandise. If you visit steamdeck.com in one of these regions, you should be redirected to the Komodo site shortly, or you can click here and select your language.
Valve spokesperson Kaci Aitchison Boyle tells The Verge that the first batch of new reservations will be fulfilled later this year; a press release adds that deliveries will begin in Japan, “with additional units scheduled to be delivered to customers in Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan in the coming weeks.”
However, pour one out to our friends in Australia, who are still waiting for launch news after Valve dropped the country’s name during the November 2021 developer meeting.
In Japan, the price of the Steam Deck will start at ¥59,800 (approximately $447), ranging up to ¥99,800 (approximately $746) for the premium 512GB model. In the US, these models cost $400 and $650, respectively. As before, you now have to pay a small refundable fee to secure your reservation: ¥1,000 (about $7.50).
Screenshot by Sean Hollister/The Verge
Here are the starting prices elsewhere, according to Valve:
- NT$13,380 in Taiwan
- HK$ 3288 in Hong Kong
- 589,000 KRW in Korea
Each translates to about $450 USD.
Valve credits its recent surge in production for making this major expansion possible, and notes that serving these additional countries won’t throw off shipping estimates for those who have already pre-ordered a deck.
If you’re in Kyoto this weekend for the annual BitSummit gaming conference, Valve will apparently have some sort of presence there with the Steam Deck, as well as at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2022.
Handheld games are popular all over the world, but especially in places like Japan, where huge swaths of the population commute to and from major cities every day by train. While access to Steam is nothing new in these regions, being able to buy a moderately powerful, well-built and relatively compact handheld (albeit huge compared to the Nintendo Switch) where they can play these PC games is a big deal.
The last few months have brought a lot of good news regarding the deck’s availability, the most important being that you can pre-order one right now and likely receive it by the end of the year. Valve announced in late June that it would begin doubling Steam Deck shipments, which in turn could result in many people getting their Deck hardware earlier than expected. And more recently, in late July, Valve said it was ramping up production to better meet demand after clearing some supply chain issues.
Update, 8:27 p.m. ET: Added pricing information.
Add Comment