Praise Gabe, the Steam Deck launches in Australia at long last

More than two years after its North American launch, Valve’s Steam Deck is finally coming to Australia in an official capacity.

Valve, the company behind the popular PC gaming storefront, teased its hardware launch in September ahead of PAX Aus. No further details were available at the time, which we now know was a precursor to the local launch of its device.

One of the original handheld gaming PCs, the Steam Deck never actually arrived here via official channels. That hasn’t stopped an influx of grey imports flooding the local market. In Valve’s absence, we’ve seen the likes of the ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, and MSI Claw arrive on Australian shores.

Steam Decks lined up at the PAX Aus booth. Image: Gianni Di Giovanni.

From a tech perspective, the Steam Deck isn’t quite as powerful as the competitors that run on more recent AMD or Intel architecture. It uses an AMD APU combined with 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of built-in storage.

An advantage the Steam Deck does have, however, is that it runs SteamOS natively. Other handheld gaming PCs use Windows 11 with various software wrappers on top, which causes a bit of usability friction.

How much does the Steam Deck cost in Australia?

Both LCD and OLED versions of Valve’s device are coming to Australia, with pre-orders beginning in November, so keep an eye on the product page. Here are the prices of the Steam Deck in Australia per model:

• LCD 256GB: $649
• LCD 512GB: $899
• OLED 1TB: $1,049

Compared to competing handheld gaming PCs, Valve’s alternative is considerably cheaper. A base model ROG Ally costs $1,099, for example. Most other devices only ship with LCD display technology too, as opposed to the Steam Deck’s top-tier OLED option.

Image: Gianni Di Giovanni.

So, why did the local launch take so long? According to an interview with Sifter, it was due to a drawn-out logistical process. With the launch, future launches shouldn’t take as long.

“What’s good though, is now that we’ve done it, any future hardware products will be able to ship because we’ve already done all of the legwork and got the infrastructure in place,” Steam Deck designer Lawrence Yang told Sifter.

Even though grey imports have been available for a while, it’ll be interesting to see what the demand for the Steam Deck is like once it launches in Australia.

I, for one, will be smashing that pre-order button. Gimme, gimme, gimme a Steam Deck after midnight.

This story was updated to include images from the PAX Aus exhibition hall and interview quotes.

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