Distribution for the newly announced Steam hardware will be the same as the Steam Deck, Valve has confirmed, though it’s working on improvements.
Speaking to Eurogamer, Kaci Aitchison Boyle from Valve’s PR team discussed how distribution will work for the release of the new hardware. Essentially, Valve will be self-distributing just like it did with the Steam Deck.
However, players have criticised the distribution methods in the past, due to delays or missed deliveries across several regions, as well as a slow global rollout.
Aitchison Boyle has assured that Valve is making improvements.
“Right now, we are distributing the exact same way as Steam Deck,” she said, adding customers can expect the same availability and partners across regions.
“For us, it’s important to just keep making Steam distribution better and better – and distribute times, add regions and things like that.
“We’ve been working on that in the background. Even just from the Steam Deck launch, I think now the experience of buying one of our harder products on the West Coast is quite a bit better than it was a few years ago. We’ve also been adding regions like Australia last year.
“So we’re continually working on improving Steam distribution for hardware.”
Valve has today announced new Steam hardware, namely a standalone Steam Frame VR headset, as well as Steam Machine console and Steam Controller. There’s no release date yet, but they’re expected next year.
It remains to be seen how widely available they’ll be.