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by Philipp Rüegg
How to (pre)order a Steam Deck from Switzerland
27.5.2022
Translation: Patrik Stainbrook
Unfortunately, Steam Deck isn’t (yet) available here. Fortunately, those of you who can’t wait for Valve’s handheld PC to grace Switzerland can still pre-order one.
Steam Deck is in high demand. Valve, the company behind retail platform Steam, has made an impact with its Nintendo Switch for PC gamers. Annoyingly, the handheld is hard to get and not yet officially available in Switzerland. There’s little you can do about the poor delivery times, but you can still order the device using a little trick.
Anyone who currently visits the Steam Deck page with a Swiss Steam account will be greeted by an unpleasant, «This item isn’t available in your country». Currently, Steam Deck is only available in the US, Canada, the UK and the EU. Unacceptable.
At your own risk
Requirements
You’ll need three things to change your region on Steam and reserve the Deck:
- A non-Swiss credit card, e.g. Revolut.
- A VPN.
- A pick-up location outside Switzerland.
Importantly: your store’s region can only be changed back on Steam after three months.
And here’s how it works
Your region can only be changed if Steam thinks you’re staying in Germany (or any other shipping destination). To do this, use any VPN service and change your location to our northern neighbours.
After that, restart Steam. However, your region will still be Switzerland. The Steam Deck page will still refuse to let you pre-order. However, as soon as you buy something else, you’ll be given the option to change region when selecting your payment method. Enter an address in Germany and use a supported payment method such as a Revolut credit card.
Once the transaction is complete, your region will change and the Steam Deck will be available for pre-order. Unfortunately, direct purchases aren’t yet possible due to low availability.
You’ll just have to be patient. Next deliveries aren’t expected before the third quarter.
…or wait for the Swiss launch
If all this is too much trouble for you, you can also hope that Switzerland will soon be officially supplied. Valve has already announced that it will continue to supply countries this year. Maybe the Steam Deck will also be available at digitec. However, it’ll probably take a few more months before it actually gets delivered.
Philipp Rüegg
Senior Editor
Philipp.Rueegg@digitecgalaxus.chAs a child, I wasn't allowed to have any consoles. It was only with the arrival of the family's 486 PC that the magical world of gaming opened up to me. Today, I'm overcompensating accordingly. Only a lack of time and money prevents me from trying out every game there is and decorating my shelf with rare retro consoles.
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