If you were hoping to get your hands on a Steam Deck this year, we have some disappointing news: Valve has announced that it will delay the launch of its portable gaming PC by two months.

Valve communicated the news today via email to pre-order holders. The reason for the delay will come as no surprise to anyone who has tried to get graphics cards for the current generation of consoles or PCs: the ongoing global chip shortage.Valve said it has done its best to avoid global supply chain problems. However, due to material shortages, the components did not make it to Valve's manufacturing facility in time for the original launch date.

Valve's latest build estimate is for the Steam Deck to ship no earlier than February 2022. This is now the new start date for the pre-order queue. Customers who have placed pre-orders will line up in that order, but their respective ship dates will be shifted back accordingly, and Valve says that pre-order start date estimates will be updated soon after today. The company will update customers on the new ship dates.

I was one of the first to pre-order the Valve Steam Deck. Being able to play many of my favorite Steam games on a portable powerhouse is a big draw, and the fact that each Deck is a portable PC means there is plenty of room to customize it to your liking. As Xbox head Phil Spencer has stated. (as stated by Phil Spencer, head of Xbox) the fact that you can also play Xbox games via xCloud is another reason why I'm excited about the Steam Deck.

As painful as it is to wait another two months to get my hands on Valve's portable gaming PC, there is a silver lining here. With the holiday season fast approaching, Steam will be offering many games at discounted prices for the next few weeks. This makes it a great time to stock up on titles you can play on your Steam Deck. It may be small consolation, but it is certainly more productive than being upset by this news.

We'll keep you posted on Steam Deck release information as it becomes available. In the meantime, Valve has released a lot of new information about Steam Deck that is well worth checking out. And Valve reaffirmed that gamers will not see the Steam Deck until February 2022; Valve also believes that inventory should be good throughout next year.