Valve has announced that it’s opening up Steam Deck reservations for customers in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
The Seattle, WA-based company is partnering with Komodo to sell and distribute its portable Steam consoles in these areas. In a statement to Game Developer, Valve said that this new expansion is possible thanks to its recent efforts to increase Steam Deck production.
It also noted that the reservation queue for the new regions “will not impact delivery estimates” for the current reservation process in North America, Europe, and the U.K.
New destinations for the Steam Deck
Valve’s journey from game developer to digital platform owner to console manufacturer is taking it to new destinations. It’s also showing that the company is successfully navigating the manufacturing process with greater deftness than with its previous hardware efforts.
Earlier in the decade, Valve tried its hand at Steam-based consoles with Steam Machines, and tried to reinvent the gamepad with the Steam Controller. The former product never took off, and the latter slammed headlong into a lawsuit filed by Ironburg Inventions. It would later lose that case.
Part of the promise of the Steam Machine concept was that other manufacturers would be able to make their own devices that would run Valve’s Linux-based Steam operating system. That concept seems to be back on the table, as Valve’s Steam Deck team has said it would welcome participation from other manufacturers.
That prospect might become more appealing as the Steam Deck rolls out to new countries across the world. Different countries have different habits when it comes to video game console purchases, and Valve’s thinking may be that the Steam Deck platform could be modified to meet different customer needs.
Valve’s success at ramping up Steam Deck production and entering new territories comes in the wake of a global supply chain crisis that’s already impacted its business plans for the Steam Deck. The company had to delay plans for a TV-ready charging dock that would be similar to the Nintendo Switch’s docking station.