Valve it's delaying the Steam Deck's launch two months into February 2022.
If you were hoping to have a Steam Deck in time for the holidays--you technically can, it just won't be 2021's holidays. And hey, Valentine's Day is a holiday, right?
In all seriousness, Valve's delay is yet another pushback caused by a global supply change crunch that's been hitting console manufacturing, PC parts, cars, retail goods, and so on and so on. It turns out a global pandemic killing hundreds of thousands of people and disrupting entire economies can really do a number on getting parts from A to B.
"We’re sorry about this," Valve wrote in an update sent out to Steam Deck purchasers. "We did our best to work around the global supply chain issues, but due to material shortages, components aren’t reaching our manufacturing facilities in time for us to meet our initial launch dates."
Valve said that the move to a February launch will cause a bump in the reservation queue, so aspiring Steam Deck owners who'd already settled for waiting a few months will have to wait a few months more. "All reservation holders keep their place in line but dates will shift back accordingly. Reservation date estimates will be updated shortly after this announcement," Valve explained.