Valve Is Giving Away A Ton Of Steam Decks During The 2022 Game Awards

The Game Awards is an annual gaming event that occurs at the end of every year to celebrate the best new releases. In 2022, the show takes place on December 8 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California. While The Game Awards is hosted by Geoff Keighley, and the advisory board is made up of prominent industry figures like Lisa Su and Hideo Kojima, among others, the nominations process involves over 100 media outlets.

Voting for winners is done via a mixed vote consisting of fan votes from the public, and from the same jury of media outlets that submit nominees. The Game Awards claims this nomination and voting process helps keep the voting neutral and platform-agnostic, and the advisory board doesn't have any influence over the votes, since many of the members are actively involved in the development of titles that will inevitably make it into the event. Public voting to finalize the nominees opened on November 28, 2022, while the second round starts on December 1. If you want to be part of the action, you can cast your vote for each of the three voting phases by visiting the Player's Voice page on The Game Awards' site.

As one of the biggest players in the gaming space, it is unsurprising that Valve's Steam is involved in the show, and the gaming giant has certainly brought the goods — goods which total up to $97,350. 

In case you're unfamiliar, the Steam Deck is a handheld gaming console released by Valve in February 2022. It features a bright, 7-inch, 1280x800 IPS touchscreen, and a custom AMD APU with enough horsepower to get you a stable 60 fps in most games at that resolution. The Steam Deck can also be docked to a monitor to function as a complete Linux-based desktop PC, and it features all the necessary controls one might need to play just about any game on Steam.

Valve will be giving away one 512 GB Steam Deck — which usually sells for $649 — every minute during the live airing of The Game Awards, which is slated to run for around 150 minutes, according to Valve. 150 Steam Decks is nothing to scoff at, but there are, as always, some rules and restrictions. Most importantly, the giveaway is only open to residents of the U.S., U.K., Canada, and the E.U. To register for the Steam Deck giveaway — which you must do before the show — you must also have made a purchase on Steam between November 14, 2021 and November 14, 2022. To participate in the giveaway, you must watch the live show via the Steam Store page or on SteamTV when it airs on December 8, 2022.