My understanding is that the reservation queue is a mix of “we have a specific physical unit assigned to your name” and “we have a manufacturing order placed, of which one of the units is assigned to you”. Whereas waitlist is more “we haven’t even placed the order yet to manufacture your unit, so we can’t guarantee it will even get made”.
So the distinction is more about the likelihood of ever getting one.
CriticalThought@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I see. Thanks for your reply and for sharing your understanding! If that’s the case, I believe that Valve could have done a much better job messaging and managing expectations. As things stand, it seems reasonable that people in the reservation queue would have expected to be able to purchase a unit in the near-term (not 4-6 months (or more?) in the future). What an unnecessary buzzkill. :-/
charles@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
I completely agree with you. I think the intention behind their system was good, and is better than the alternatives they’ve used for the Steam Deck and Controller, but they really need to clarify and/or relabel both lists.
That being said, my comment was based on what I remember reading during the Steam Machine’s release and I assume it applies to the Frame as well. But I don’t remember at all if it was from an official source or simply what people were theorizing in various threads at the time.
CriticalThought@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Understood. Thanks for the clarification!