Steam Deck shipments are going out early for some Q4 reservations

Valve continue to pump out Steam Decks at a pace that seems surprising even to them. A few weeks after they announced that anyone with an outstanding Steam Deck order would receive their handheld PC sooner than expected, Valve designer Lawrence Yang has tweeted the news that some reservation holders in the Q4 window – as in, with orders scheduled to be fulfilled in Q4 2022 – are being bumped up into the Q3 batch. Like being upgraded to business class at the airport, if Lufthansa suddenly discovered they had a few more planes than they thought.

“Production has outperformed our estimates,” according to Yang, who sometimes uses his personal Twitter to share Steam Deck news or warn people against DIY Deck mods. Hence, a few lucky souls who’d otherwise have to wait until late autumn for their orders can expect theirs much more imminently. As with all orders, Valve send a confirmation email when someone’s Steam Deck is ready to be paid for and shipped out; Yang clarified that those previously in the Q4 windows aren’t now receiving their emails by accident.

Hi all, a few of you may have received an order email for your “Q4 window” Steam Deck reservation today. This wasn’t a mistake! Production has outperformed our estimates, and we’ll be moving more Q4 folks into the Q3 window.

Official announcement and info coming soon. 🎉

— Lawrence Yang (@lawrenceyang) August 22, 2022

Curiously, it doesn’t sound as if Valve are completely done with existing Q3 orders, just carving through them ahead of schedule. This might mean some in the Q3 gang will get their Steam Decks after certain Q4 orders are fulfilled, which doesn’t seem like the best application of a queuing system, but then there may be other, possibly geographical factors involved in who gets theirs when.

Point is, Steam Decks are being made faster and faster, maybe even to the extent that there might be no queue at all by the end of the year. And that’s fine by me, as the Steam Deck was a very nice piece of kit when it launched, and it’s only become better since.