Valve has responded to the issues with Steam Deck availability saying "we are making them as quickly as possible".
Steam Deck pre-orders went up a few days ago, and those who were lucky enough to get one ordered are now reporting that the shipping date for the console is much later than expected.
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When the Steam Deck was revealed it was said to be shipping in December 2021, but many of those who have ordered have discovered that date slipping as far back as the third quarter of 2022.
In a statement to IGN regarding these issues, a Valve spokesperson said, "We are making them as quickly as we are able, and the different ship times you reference are based on region and model being reserved".
From this statement, it seems that the shipping date for the Steam Deck will have changed depending on where you live, and what sort of model you went for. Areas in the UK seem to be getting slightly later shipping dates, and if you've gone for the most expensive and advanced version of the Steam Deck, it seems like you'll be waiting a bit longer than those who went for the basic model.
It also seems that the order in which you managed to pre-order your Steam Deck is affecting when the expected shipping date is as some dates are appearing differently even in the same region.
As anyone who has tried to get a PS5 or Xbox Series X can attest to, the semiconductor shortage has made consoles incredibly hard to get a hold of, but arguably even harder for them to get made in the first place. This seems to be the case here as well, with Valve simply being unable to provide Steam Decks faster than they can get made.
The Steam Deck launch went anything but smoothly, with many users being told that their Steam account wasn't old enough, or being locked out from buying anything altogether.