Given the rise in popularity of the Steam Deck, which is still several months from coming out, it’s hardly surprising that some scalpers have taken to getting hold of a pre-order with the intention of selling it on for hugely inflated prices. Some of the portable kits, or at least the chance to get hold of one, have been on sale through eBay for thousands of dollars. Despite this, there is still no guarantee that people will be eligible for one in December.

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Valve did try to take this into account before pre-orders went on sale by integrating an anti-scalper queue system in order to make sure sales of the Steam Deck were legitimate. Unfortunately, this seemed to backfire, with attempts to pre-order them causing server shutdowns. Now that eBay has removed all listings from its site, citing a breach of its presale policy, it should make it harder for scalpers to make their move. But many are probably already aware that scalpers have ways of circumventing inconveniences.

When the Steam Deck was announced last Thursday, it almost immediately became the talk of the gaming world. Given that it’s essentially a hand-held PC, it’s supposed to be able to support not only Steam games, but games from other platforms, such as GOG or Origin. Despite recent concerns that the Deck won’t be able to support some online games, such as Destiny 2 or Fortnite, Valve has insisted that every game developers have played have been comfortably compatible with the device.

The Steam Deck also fully supports mods, which is just one of the ways in which it differs from, say, the Nintendo Switch. It’s probably going to be the one device to own this, or possibly next, year. As exciting as it sounds, it’s worth bearing in mind that Valve does not have a great track record when it comes to hardware. Many will have vague memories of the Steam Controller or the Steam Link. Neither of which left any kind of impact on the gaming world. Maybe the Deck will be different this time. Scalpers seem to think so.

The Steam Deck is out this December.

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Source: Eurogamer