Steam Deck is now being shipped out to game developers anyway

Date:
Wed, 15 Sep 2021 11:35:02 +0000

Description:
Things look like theyre shaping up well enough for Valve to remain on track for launch.

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Steam Deck developer kits are now being sent to game developers for them to test the hardware with their products ahead of its big release at the end of the year.

These dev kit models are functionally identical to the finished product, as weve heard before, and while therell be small differences, they wont be anything that matters. Best PC games of 2021 Best Linux distros for gaming We'll show you how to build a PC

This is not really a surprise seeing as at the start of September, Valve announced that it was getting ready to ship developer kits, and for requests to be made for the limited number of these which were being prepared.

So those requests have been received, processed, and the lucky devs deemed important enough are getting a Steam Deck imminently. The engineering samples of the handhelds are intended to give Valve the chance to guide game developers through the process of getting their games on Steam Deck , the
firm notes , and to get feedback on possible issues as the final phase of
work on the device ramps up.

We also got a glimpse of some pics of the dev units being given their final updates (above) and then subsequently packaged up ready to be shipped
(below). (Image credit: Valve) Analysis: Swift delivery of samples

To all intents and purposes, then, the Steam Deck hardware is done, with just polishing and honing to perform and hopefully thats something of a hint that Valve is on-track to launch the portable PC as planned in December.

After all, its taken less than a fortnight to get the names of interested parties, process them and ship out dev sample units, so that seems to be pretty quick even if at this point, it needs to be. Remember, were only a
few months away from the actual retail launch now, so testing needs to
proceed with some urgency.

Of course, even if things seem to be on track right now for the big launch, exactly how many units might be available in December is another question entirely particularly given how quickly pre-orders were pushed way out into 2022 when they first went live.

Whats clear enough is that a great deal of gamers are going to be doing some waiting, its just a question of how much waiting . Currently, the Steam Deck pre-order page shows expected availability of after Q2 2022 for all models, which indicates July 2022 or later. Check out the best gaming PCs currently out there



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/steam-deck-is-now-being-shipped-out-to-game-dev elopers-anyway/


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