Even for the midrange 256GB model, the time to wait after placing a reservation is pretty short. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
I was one of the people who rushed to put down a deposit for Valve’s Steam Deck the first moment that I could. However, I pulled out of the queue after seeing how long others were having to wait near its launch. Now, after seeing time and time again that Valve has increased production of the Deck to shorten wait times, it eventually made me rejoin the queue, if only as an experiment to see how quickly I could get to the front of the line.
As it turns out, I only had to wait a month. I placed a deposit for the $529 256GB model on August 25th, and I just received my email confirmation that it was available for purchase. That wasn’t so bad. With a wait this short, there’s no reason to pay higher-than-retail costs for a Deck through sites…