Valve has come out to warn gamers to “be careful” when buying a Steam Deck from a third-party seller with no signal as to when it will be released in more countries, and now people are mad.
In a Happy New Year post from the Steam Deck Twitter account, Valve writes, “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.”
As of writing, there is no “official” way for customers to buy a Steam Deck in Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Brazil, India, and other global regions. As Valve is yet to partner with any retailers for distribution, instead opting to solely sell the console straight from the source for the US, Canada, Europe, and the UK as well as distributor Komodo for select Asian regions, any other source is officially unofficial.
Grey import websites such as Kogan and Dick Smith have been Australia’s most recent avenue to securing a console, with each website charging a pretty penny but offering its own types of buyer protection. Prior to this, one could find many a console on eBay with price tags in the thousands, and it’s a gamble as to whether they’re legitimate.
This warning from Valve, albeit warranted considering they probably don’t want to be responsible for anything turning tits up, has resulted in many replies from those living in countries that the Steam Deck does not ship to, essentially saying, “How else am I supposed to get it?”
Don’t you dare tell us Australians and New Zealanders how to purchase a steam deck when you won’t even allow us to “officially” order one. Nor update us on what the schedule is!
Hopefully soon you will, then you won’t need to worry about these posts.
— Vitality (@VitalitySteam) January 11, 2023
Maybe, instead of making these posts, you guys could probably work with some businesses in our country to officially make them available and not let us rely on parallel grey market imports???? In
Especially when Valve already has a presence in India???
— Sampad Banerjee (@Only_Redacted) January 11, 2023
Got mine from a reseller because Steam didn’t sell it in my country of residence.
Only a slight mark up and they provided all the original purchase paperwork on case of any issues.
YOU are creating the very problem you’re warning against. Why is it so difficult to sell globally?— Ashraa (@Aashraa1) January 11, 2023
This only works if you make it available for purchase to those who are buying it from unofficial purchasers.
If you actually cared about this as a problem you would actually communicate what Valve is planning regarding those regions that don’t have access.— Chris Sims (@gingerchris86) January 11, 2023
I hate to be an “I see both sides” guy here, but I really do see both sides here. Valve may be worried about its customers getting scammed, and they haven’t outright said to not do it, only to show caution. However, I am also one of the many people living in a non-Steam Deck country that would go nutso for one, so it probably feels like a kick in the head to see them telling you to avoid buying their console the only way you can right now.
At the end of the day, anybody getting a Steam Deck through a website that isn’t Steam-affiliated probably knows the risks going in, but are desperate for that handheld goodness. Here’s hoping we get a release date for the official Steam Deck in Australia soon, but in the meantime, be careful!
Leave a Reply