Steam Decks are finally arriving in the hands of customers after last week's launch, and some recipients near Valve's office got quite a surprise with their console delivery: A face-to-face meeting with Valve boss, Gabe Newell.
In a video posted to Twitter, we see Newell signing and hand-delivering some nearby orders. Though Valve emailed the customers to let them know that the company's boss would be showing up to hand over the console, some were understandably skeptical. One even wrote back: "I don't believe you."
Special delivery —
Newell explains in the video that he views the release of the Steam Deck as a major milestone for the company, which led him to want to deliver the product himself. Additionally, he signed the devices, at one point saying, "Hopefully people won't get mad that I'm signing them."
In the video, several of the recipients recognize Newell, but others just seem happy to get their Deck in hand. Apparently, Newell's first job was delivering telegrams, so this whole routine was familiar to him. He also gave his email address to each customer.
Newell's email has been public for many years now, but he says that even though he gets thousands of messages a day, it helps him stay in touch with his customer base.
Overall, the Steam Deck has received fairly positive reviews, with many outlets comparing it favorably to the Nintendo Switch. The Steam Deck is still very much a portable PC, not a console, however, meaning that you'll need some degree of technical know-how to get many games to run well on it.
