News & Updates
Oct 6, 2022
Steam Deck and Docking Station now in-stock and available!
Steam Deck is available now, without reservation!
We're happy to announce that with today’s batch of order emails, we have completed our reservation queue. We are now in-stock and Steam Deck is available for purchase!
It's been more than a year since Steam Deck was first announced. Since day one we've been dealing with numerous supply chain issues and component shortages. While the team worked to resolve these issues and catch up with demand, we implemented a reservation system. This system enabled customers to save their spot in line without having to worry about refreshing pages, fighting scripts, or battling bots.
The team has worked hard over the past year to address shortages and solve logistics issues, and because of these efforts we're now manufacturing and shipping Steam Decks at our highest rate ever. Despite the ever-increasing reservation rate, we've been able to beat our shipping estimates, and as of today, finally complete the queue.
Having said all that, our production, processing, and shipping bandwidth is still finite. If order volume for a specific model of Steam Deck grows higher than our ability to ship it in a timely manner, delivery estimates will lengthen, and at a certain point we’ll flip back into reservation mode until we’re able to catch up. Just as before, customers will have their place in line saved, and they'll receive an email when their order is ready. Once we’ve caught up and served all outstanding reservations, we’ll flip back into taking orders.
We're excited to reach this important milestone, and will be shipping these out to you as fast as we can.
The official Docking Station is here!
With 3 USB-A 3.1 Gen1 ports, a USB-C port for power, DisplayPort, HDMI, and a Gigabit Ethernet port, the Docking Station has all the connectivity you'll need. It's the perfect way to connect your Steam Deck to power, up to two external displays, and any number of other peripherals.
If having the official Dock isn't that important to you, you're welcome to use any other USB-C dock or hub. The work we did on SteamOS to make the Docking Station work great with Steam Deck helps improve compatibility with other 3rd party hubs and docks as well.
The Docking Station is available for purchase now! Learn more about it here, or order one here.
As with Steam Deck, the Docking Station is under the same processing and shipping bandwidth constraints - if order volume is extremely high, we will flip into reservation mode until we catch up. We're glad to finally be able to get the Docking Station into customer hands, thank you for your patience!
Steam Deck software updates
The team has continued updating and improving Steam Deck's software over the last few months – here are a few highlights of what we've shipped:
User interface and experience improvements
We've improved the in-game experience by adding quick links to Achievements and Guides to the overlay. The media page where screenshots are stored has been redesigned and improved to be much more performant. Night mode can now be automatically scheduled to turn on and off at different times of the day. And Offline Mode has undergone a series of improvements to make it much more stable and intuitive to use.
New Steam Input features
In addition to a slew of bug fixes and UI improvements, Mode Shifts are now supported, and Steam Input virtual menus have been completely refreshed and redesigned. Now you can name virtual menus, move them between different sources, and have more control over icons and colors.
More keyboards and improved experience
To prepare for our launch in new regions, we've added on-screen keyboard support for Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. In addition, there have been big improvements to touchscreen and trackpad on-screen keyboard typing and responsiveness - both in Gaming mode and Desktop mode.
System updates
SteamOS, drivers, and firmware have all been updated to improve performance and stability across Steam Deck. In addition, to help folks keep track of system updates and betas (if you choose to participate in testing), we've added new, simpler update channels – Stable, Beta, and Preview.
Docked mode overhaul
We've been focused on a bunch of UI, software, and OS updates to improve the docked experience - not only for the official Docking Station, but for all connected docks, hubs, and peripherals. The team has added scaling, resolution, and refresh rate settings for external displays, as well as broad compatibility for external displays, peripherals, and audio-out scenarios.
Steam Deck reservations open in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong
One other byproduct of us scaling production is our ability to expand to other regions. Recently we started taking reservations in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong through Komodo, our distribution partner in these regions. To celebrate the launch and spread the word, we recently went to the Tokyo Game Show and brought a giant Steam Deck with us, which was pretty cool.
If you’re in one of these regions and would like to reserve a Steam Deck, you can do so via Komodo at this website. We are continuing to push on expanding Steam Deck's reach to more places around the world, and will share more when we have additional details.
That's it for today, until next time!
Oct 5, 2022
Steam Deck Client Update and SteamOS 3.3.2
Hello! We have just shipped SteamOS 3.3.2 and an updated Steam Client to the Stable channel. This update includes all the changes and improvements that have been undergoing testing in the Beta and Preview channels.
SteamOS 3.3.2
- Docked Mode
- Added external display output resolution and refresh rate selection UI in Display Settings
- Automatically avoid problematic resolutions like 4096x2160 or 30Hz modes on external displays
- Improved external display hot-plug detection
- Fixed in-game camera control issues when using a physical mouse
- Fixed aspect ratio and resolution not properly switching in the Steam UI after reconnecting an external monitor
- Fixed an issue where frames could drop on external displays at lower refresh rates
- Added external display output resolution and refresh rate selection UI in Display Settings
- General
- Fixed a crash in Red Dead Redemption 2
- Improved frame pacing when compositing (such as when FSR is enabled)
- Improved joystick touch / de-touch detection speed
- Modified USB descriptors to support controller navigation in EFI menu at boot
- Fixed controller firmware update applying on every boot
- Fixed a scenario where an SD Card format operation could fail
- Fixed an issue where small touches would be ignored on edges of some trackpads
- Fixed unsolicited random haptic events
- Fixed boot tone volume to be equalized across models
- Fixed a crash in Red Dead Redemption 2
Steam Client
- General
- Performance improvements when rendering the homescreen
- Chat textboxes are now auto-focused when opening the chat tab
- Fixed some cases where cloud sync would be attempted while offline
- Fixed issue with startup haptics
- Performance improvements when rendering the homescreen
- Docked Mode
- Added a toggle allowing Steam Deck to automatically control the display resolution for external displays. When toggled on, Steam Deck will automatically adjust the resolution for best performance on higher resolution displays.
- Steam Deck now keeps track of refresh rate and FPS limit settings independently for internal and external displays
- Disabled refresh rate switching via the quick access menu for external displays by default. Alternative refresh rates are still accessible via the resolution dropdown in Settings->Display.
- Added a toggle to developer settings to re-enable refresh rate switching in the quick access menu for external displays. (Please note that the Steam Deck’s built-in display was validated to support the full range of refresh rates available in the slider, but for arbitrary external displays we can't provide a guarantee that the resolution + refresh rate combination will be functional. This can lead to a scenario where the external display doesn’t display an image, so there isn’t an easy way to undo the change. Here be dragons, we don't recommend turning this setting on.)
- Added a toggle allowing Steam Deck to automatically control the display resolution for external displays. When toggled on, Steam Deck will automatically adjust the resolution for best performance on higher resolution displays.
- Steam Input
- Controller configurations now automatically switch to be per-device when multiple of the same controller are connected at once
- Virtual menu previews in the Configurator now highlight the appropriate button when navigating to its associated command in the command list
- Reduced occurrence of double-activations on Soft Press on Touch Pads and Sticks.
- Fixed scaling of the virtual hotbar menu preview in the Configurator
- Fixed an issue where "Disabled" would be listed multiple times the dropdown options for modes
- Fix an issue where booting into offline mode in desktop would result in unresponsive controller inputs until the "stay offline" dialog was clicked.
- Fix an issue with setting command settings inside a modeshift
- Fixed a bug where switching the active controller in the configurator could lose unsaved changes
- Fixed a crash with editing the mode settings for an input (e.g. joystick)
- Fixed a crash when setting a trigger input to "Disabled" in an action set layer
- Fixed a crash when loading some Steam Input configs.
- Controller configurations now automatically switch to be per-device when multiple of the same controller are connected at once
- Steam Input: FlickStick
- Reduced update rate from 240hz to 120hz to reduce instances of maxed out mouse movement between game frames
- Added a "Slap Back" check so that the stick does not accidentally invoke an opposite-side turn when snapping home aggressively
- Any remaining Snap Angle is doled as the stick returns to zero. This further reduces "mouse movement spikes"
- Tweaked Inner Radius Default to be lower
- Fixed Dampening Value not being used with the correct ranges
- Reduced update rate from 240hz to 120hz to reduce instances of maxed out mouse movement between game frames
- Custom boot videos
- Steam Deck will now look for a custom boot video and/or a suspend animation in ~/.steam/root/config/uioverrides/movies/
- Please note that you'll need to create this folder first
- You’ll need webm file format, no need to truncate the video, no need to mess with css
- Play custom boot animations in full screen
- Steam Deck will now look for a custom boot video and/or a suspend animation in ~/.steam/root/config/uioverrides/movies/
Oct 5, 2022
Steam Deck Client Beta Update: Just a couple of things
Note: This update is for the Steam Deck Beta and Preview channels, and includes new features that are still being tested. You can opt into this in Settings > System > Steam Update Channel.
- Changed the boot video override folder to ~/.steam/root/config/uioverrides/movies/
- Sorry to change this directory again
- You'll need to create this folder yourself before adding videos
- Same as last time: webm file format, no need to truncate, no need to mess with css
- Sorry to change this directory again
- Fixed a crash when Steam fails to find libwayland
Oct 4, 2022
Steam Deck Client Beta Update: External display settings and more
Note: This update is for the Steam Deck Beta and Preview channels, and includes new features that are still being tested. You can opt into this in Settings > System > Steam Update Channel.
External display settings
General
External display settings
- Keep track of refresh rate and FPS limit settings independently for internal and external displays.
- Disable refresh rate switching via the quick access menu for external displays by default. Alternative refresh rates are still accessible via the resolution dropdown in Settings->Display.
- Added a toggle to developer settings to re-enable refresh rate switching in the quick access menu for external displays. Please note that the Steam Deck’s built-in display was validated to support the full range of refresh rates available in the slider, but for arbitrary external displays we can't provide a guarantee that the resolution + refresh rate combination will be functional. This can lead to a scenario where the external display doesn’t display an image, so there isn’t an easy way to undo the change. Here be dragons, we don't recommend turning this setting on.
General
- Performance improvements when rendering the homescreen.
- Fixed a crash when loading some SteamInput configs.
- Reduced occurrence of double-activations on Soft Press on Touch Pads and Sticks.
Oct 4, 2022
Steam Deck OS Beta Update: RDR2 fix + improved external display detection
Note: This update is for the Steam Deck Preview channel, and includes new features that are still being tested. You can opt into this in Settings > System > Steam Update Channel.
- Fixed a crash in Red Dead Redemption 2
- Improved external display hot-plug detection
Get your hands on Deck!
Steam Deck is shipping now.
Product specifications are subject to change.
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