Valve has given a warning to consumers to only buy Steam Deck handhelds from Valve themselves or through other official retailers and websites.
"Hello, and happy new year! A quick note that the only official ways to purchase Steam Deck are directly from Steam (in the US, CA, EU, and UK), or from Komodo (JP, KR, TW, and HK),” Valve explained on Twitter. “Steam Decks sold via any other websites or retailers are unofficial - please be careful.”
Hello, and happy new year! A quick note that the only official ways to purchase Steam Deck are directly from Steam (in the US, CA, EU, and UK), or from Komodo (JP, KR, TW, and HK). Steam Decks sold via any other websites or retailers are unofficial - please be careful. pic.twitter.com/hawVka9MLP
— Steam Deck (@OnDeck) January 10, 2023
While Valve is being well-intentioned here, Twitter users in the replies have rightfully pointed out that Steam Deck handhelds are not officially available to purchase from Valve in certain territories. Places like Australia and Latin America are notably absent from the official list.
One user explained that they had very few options other than to purchase Steam Decks from Amazon Mexico from sellers who were importing them. Back in October 2022, Valve announced that people could now buy Steam Decks without needing a reservation.
Hopefully, Valve is also working on ways to get the Steam Deck officially into more markets as the replies indicate that there is still demand for it. Until then, consumers in regions outside of the official distribution list will have to either wait or go ahead and purchase from unofficial places.
After shipping Steam Deck, Valve now wants another crack at the Steam controller. Surely the Steam Deck also reached new audiences that otherwise wouldn’t play PC games as Steam recently hit 10 million concurrent in-game players for the first time this week.
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He's been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.
When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey
