It hasn’t changed visually pretty much at all, and it turns out that clunky feeling may have also been shared by Valve while working on it behind the scenes as well.

But while Big Picture mode certainly makes navigating your library easier from the couch, it’s become somewhat dated and clunky since its introduction nearly a decade ago. This isn’t Valve’s first attempt to make PC gaming more accessible on controllers, with the Steam Link and Steam Big Picture mode providing a similarly console-esque interface when playing away from your desktop. To that end, the UI here is all brand new for the Deck. “They're going to have shorter game sessions and want to really get into the action quickly, so it was super important for us that you can find a game immediately – and that's games in your library, but also games that you might want to know about, things that are new to the store.” Kogan currently has the better deals but you need to be signed up to Kogan First if you want the considerable discounts listed below (there's a 14-day free trial if you only need it for purchasing the Steam Deck).“We really started from this idea of like, we know that people are going to be taking this device different places, they're probably going to be playing with it in different ways,” Valve designer Tucker Spofford told me. Both websites offer fast, free shipping on various models. For example, Valve’s Index VR headset didn’t arrive in Australia until two years after it launched elsewhere.įor now, your best option is to simply purchase it through Amazon and Kogan. That said, local availability for Valve products in Australia has been notoriously unpredictable in the past. That precedent, along with enduring dominance of EB Games as the go-to gaming retailer for many Australian communities, is one reason to hope that Valve might look at another team-up when it comes to launching the Steam Deck in Australi sofficially.

As mentioned above, the Steam Deck is now available to purchase through various Australian retailers online but it still hasn't appeared in brick-and-mortar stores, like JB HI-FI or EB Games.Īt one point in time, Valve’s Steam Link streaming box and the accompanying Steam Controller were readily available and sold in Australia via an alliance with EB Games.

Stream deck console price