When Valve released the first Steam Deck in 2022 it wasn't possible to buy it (or pre-order it) in Australia. At the time, I optimistically predicted that the handheld would launch in Australia the following year. I was wrong, of course, though a roaring grey market trade has flourished on the likes of eBay and Amazon.
Well, Valve time has struck: Steam Deck will soon be available in Australia with prices starting from AU$649 for the 256GB LCD model. It's brilliant news for anyone who heeded Valve's warning in early 2023 about grey market sellers. "A quick note that the only official ways to purchase Steam Deck are directly from Steam (in the US, CA, EU, and UK), or from Komodo (JP, KR, TW, and HK)," it wrote. "Steam Decks sold via any other websites or retailers are unofficial - please be careful."
Careful? Patient is probably the operative word here. Australians will be able to order Steam Decks directly from Valve starting in November, so we can get back to bothering Valve about other important matters. No third-party sellers have been announced and likely won't be: Valve sells direct to customers in all regions save Asia.
Here's a breakdown of Steam Deck models and their official Australian prices:
256GB LCD: AU$649
512GB OLED: AU$899
1TB OLED: AU$1,049
How's that compare with the prices we've been seeing on the grey market? They're definitely better: at a glance, the 512GB OLED tends to sell for over AU$1,000 in Australia or, if you're lucky, for a little under. Retailers like Kogan have the 1TB OLED at a AU$1,599 RRP (which is of course unofficial), that model tended to hover around the AU$1,300.
In other words: yes, the prices are better than what we've seen through the grey market.
The announcement was made as part of Valve's showing at PAX Australia. The writing was on the wall: when it was announced that Steam (and not Valve) was appearing at the event, it was pretty hard to interpret that as anything but a local Steam Deck release.
