The Steam Deck FINALLY has a release date in Australia

Early last month, Valve surprised Australians by sending two of the Steam Deck's designers Lawrence Yang and Yazan Aldehayyat Down Under to announce an official local release for the popular handheld. At first, only a vague November 2024 release was revealed but now Valve has given Australians a firm date: Tuesday, the 19th of November 2024. 

The Steam Deck will officially release in Australia on the 19th of November 2024 at 10:00am in the morning. There won't be a pre-order period, so if you've got your heart set on picking up a Steam Deck or Steam Deck OLED, you'll need to be at the ready come 10:00am on the 19th of November. At launch, the local version of the Steam Deck will only be available through the Steam platform. If by chance you don't already have a Steam account, we'd recommend setting one up ahead of time. The Steam Store is a very a secure platform but that can make logging in a bit of a headache if you forget your password or haven't set up two-factor authentication correctly. 

It's also worth deciding on a model before the release date. Here in Australia there will be three variants of the Steam Deck available at launch. Here's how much each will cost:

• 256GB LCD Steam Deck: $649.00 AUD
• 512GB OLED Steam Deck: $899.00 AUD
• 1TB OLED Steam Deck: $1049.00 AUD

At 10:00am on the release day, orders will go live at this landing page so make sure you bookmark the URL and set yourself a reminder to check back on the morning of the 19th of November. 

Not too hot on Valve's Steam Deck? It's not your only option in the growing handheld gaming market. Take a look at the table below to see how the Steam Deck stacks up against the competition.