It's official. Valve has finally announced the launch date for the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck is an upcoming handheld PC gaming system created by Valve. It runs on Linux (Arch, by the way) and utilizes a custom AMD APU. As you can imagine, it's a hot item. Valve took reservations for orders when it announced the handheld in 2021. Well, today, Valve has confirmed it will start emailing invites to reservation holders on February 25th, which is coincidentally the Steam Deck's release date. Orders will start shipping on the 28th, which means we're a month away from the first batch going out, and more batches will roll out weekly.

The first batch of Steam Decks was supposed to ship out this past December, but things were delayed thanks to global supply chain issues. This pushed things out to February. Thankfully, Valve has been able to stick to this timeline, with the first batch of Steam Decks shipping out in the same order reservations were taking. First come, first served, basically. Those that receive an email on the 25th to place their order will only be able to order the same unit they reserved, so no last-minute changes, folks. You're stuck with what you picked back in July. The $5 deposit paid during a customer's reservation will be applied to the order.

Valve has also confirmed it will be sending out press units shortly, and the embargo on this coverage ends on release day, February 25th. This means we can all check out Steam Deck reviews the day of its release. Preview coverage and first impressions should arrive even earlier, so it appears that we'll soon have our fill of Steam Deck news in the coming month.