Steam sparks Steam Deck speculation ahead of PAX appearance

With Valve set to make an appearance at next month's PAX Australia 2024, the rumor mill is rife with talk that an Australian launch for the Steam Deck may finally be imminent.

The news (along with the full list of PAX Australia exhibitors) went live earlier this week, but the organisers behind the Melbourne-based convention are remaining quiet on exactly what the company behind the biggest storefront in PC gaming might be bringing to the show.

Given that the on-show presence is being attributed to Steam rather than Valve, it's little surprise that the bulk of the conversation has involved the Steam Deck.

At the time of writing, neither the original Steam Deck nor the Steam Deck OLED have been officially available in Australia. The only way to get your hands on either gaming handheld is to import one through a third party, which comes with its own set of drawbacks and caveats.

Given how inconsistent and unreliable local availability for Valve products in Australia has been to date, it'd be both unexpected and yet entirely in-character for the company to suddenly announce it years after everywhere else.

Famously, Valve’s Index VR headset didn’t arrive in Australia until two years after it launched. In that instance, Valve worked with local retailer EB Games to bring its hardware to market. It's unclear at this stage whether they'd look to take that same approach with the Steam Deck or go directly to consumers as they have in other regions.

In the years since it first launched its popular gaming handheld, the company has said little to nothing about if or when the Steam Deck might make its way to Australia beyond the odd warning about grey market retailers. 

Speaking to Reviews.org, former Kotaku Australia editor David Smith doesn't have high hopes.

Smith shared that he had previously heard a rumor doing the rounds that Valve wanted to announce local availability at PAX Australia last year but nothing ended up coming of it.

"Could that have had any credence? Who knows. The stage PAX supplies feels big enough for such an announcement. I just don’t know why Valve would want a splashy mic drop moment when the device is freely available from numerous Australian retailers through grey importers. Surely that dulls the impact of such an announcement a bit?"

According to him, announcing the Steam Deck is officially coming to Australia doesn’t mean much "when most Aussies who really wanted one have been able to get it locally for well over a year now."

"It’s also worth remembering that Valve has Deadlock in the offing, and may be looking to promote that instead. While I’d be happy to be proven wrong, my advice is to keep your expectations low," he said.

In any case, we won't have to wait too long to find out for sure. PAX Australia 2024 kicks off on 11 October 2024 and runs through to the 13th.