Steam Deck Availability Expands to Southeast Asia but Indian Gamers Still Need to Depend on Grey Market for the Console

Valve has announced the launch of its Steam Deck consoles in Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan on December 17.

The reservations for the handheld console began a few months ago, and now Steam has confirmed that the pre-order requests will be sent to reserved customers starting tomorrow. Users in these regions will be purchasing the console through Steam’s partners in Asia, Komodo.

With the first orders shipping from December 17, expect to see the deliveries be made within a “few days to a couple of weeks.”

Starting December 1st, customers in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan who have already reserved their Steam Deck will receive email confirmations to finalize their orders. These orders will start shipping on December 17th. pic.twitter.com/4phRyosDcl

— Steam Deck (@OnDeck) November 30, 2022

Despite its raging success in several regions across the globe, Valve has yet to officially launch the Steam Deck in India. However, interested customers can still buy them through unofficial channels.

Steam Deck in stock on Mcube. 64gb for now. Expecting 256 and 512 soon. #SteamDeck #PCGaming #India pic.twitter.com/Z5967tW7p9

— 0xSkeptic (@RishiAlwani) November 30, 2022

As pointed out by Indian games market analyst Rishi Alwani, the Valve-developed portable console is currently available to purchase on Mcube Games.

The prices of these consoles are much higher than the ones officially listed by Valve on its website. If the company ever decides to launch the Steam Deck in India, expect to see a massive drop in prices.

However, currently, players will have to suffice with importing Steam Decks from other nations through retailers like Mcube, which comes with its own caveats, such as no official after-sales support within the country.