Recap: Valve's Steam Deck launched at the end of February to much fanfare. Unfortunately for prospective buyers, the company accumulated a significant backlog of reservations in the lead up due in part to global component shortages and supply chain woes stemming from the pandemic.

Good news came down the pipe this week as Valve said it recently sent out the first batch of order e-mails to Q2 reservation holders. Better yet, Valve is ramping up Steam Deck shipments and will be sending more order availability e-mails each week – up to two waves per week at times.

Welcome to Q2! We've just sent out the first set of order emails to Q2 reservers (in order of reservation time). Starting today we're ramping up Steam Deck shipments, and will be sending more order availability emails every week. Sometimes even twice a week! pic.twitter.com/54TAoCQXfd

— Steam Deck (@OnDeck) April 4, 2022

No additional specifics were provided.

A quick check of the Steam Deck product page indicates new order expected availability has slipped to October 2022 or later. That means if you reserve a place in line today, you won't have the opportunity to place an order until October 2022 or later at the earliest.

It's wild to think of shopping for the holidays in April, but here we are.

There are ways to get your hands on a Steam Deck sooner, but it'll cost you. Looking at recently sold Steam Decks on eBay, in-hand units from reputable sellers (not obvious spam accounts) in the US start around $1,000 and scale up from there depending on the hardware configuration. For comparison, the entry-level Steam Deck with 64GB of eMMC retails for $399 directly from Valve.

Have you had a chance to try out the Steam Deck yet? If so, does it live up to your expectations for a portable PC gaming machine?