Valve has opened reservations for the Steam Deck in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan, marking the first major increase in availability since its launch. Until now, the Steam Deck was only available in North America, parts of Europe and the United Kingdom.
The company claims it can sell in more countries without affecting the current reservation queues because of a recent increase in production that pushed forward many existing pre-orders to Q3 of this year. It also promised to fulfill all current pre-orders this year.
In these new countries, Valve is working with a company called Komodo for both sales and distribution. Reservations can be placed at https://steamdeck.komodo.jp/.
According to a press release from Valve, the Steam Deck will start at ¥59,800 in Japan, NT$13,380 in Taiwan, HK$3,288 in Hong Kong and KRW 589,000 in Korea.
Valve says that it will be showing the Steam Deck off at major events, including a BitSummit in Kyoto, Japan and at the Tokyo Game Show in September.
The Steam Deck has been the top seller on Steam more or less since it launched, and if it sells in these new regions the way it has been selling elsewhere, that may not change anytime soon.
Customers in these countries will get a much more mature version of the Steam Deck than those of us who have been playing since launch. Valve has added a ton of updates, including the addition of a lock screen, fixes to adaptive brightness and frame rate locks, per-game performance profiles and far more verified games, so potential new owners know what to expect. There have also been a full set of drivers released for those running Windows on Steam Deck.
The Steam Deck is one of many consumer electronics that was hit hard by supply chain issues over the last few years. The handheld was originally meant to launch in late 2021, and was pushed back to February 2022 due to shortages. Reservations in the initial launch regions stretched to nearly a year long. Now that lead times appear to be easing, the Steam Deck is ready to see more of the world, and likely land in the hands of many more gamers.
Updated Aug 4, 9:06 a.m. ET with pricing and a link to reserve..
