Originally supposed to come out in spring of this year, the dock for Valve's Steam Deck blew past that schedule. But attendees at the Tokyo Game Show, which is just wrapping up, got a good look at the dock over at Valve's booth, with the official peripheral being casually shown off at the convention in Japan.
Reddit user ElderberryLarge9104 took some photos of the dock and shared on the Steam Deck Subreddit, giving us a clear view of the ports available on it (thanks PC Gamer). The docks were used to charge demo models of the Steam Deck at the Tokyo Game Show. Previously, Valve had shown off only press images of the dock but now we've seen them out in the wild.
Intended for spring 2022, Valve had to delay the dock indefinitely due to parts shortages. "Due to parts shortages and COVID closures at our manufacturing facilities, the official Steam Deck Docking Station is delayed. We're working on improving the situation and will share more info when we have it," Valve said, in announcement back in June.
Valve has described the dock as being able to prop up your Steam while it is connected to external displays, wired networking, USB peripherals, and power, and from the looks of the images shared on Reddit, that is exactly what the official Steam Deck dock looks like it will do.
Valve did get beaten to the punch as one of the first docks to be available on the market was released from Jsaux in August. PC Gamer said it was "sturdy and practical but with some frustraing limitations", in their review of the Jsaux Steam Deck Dock.
It is still unclear exactly what functionalities the official Steam Deck dock will have, and there were rumours that it was delayed not only because of parts shortages, but also because of software issues, so we will have to wait on Valve on all the details. Expect the Steam Deck Docking Station hopefully by spring 2023, but since it's known that Valve hardware can slip schedule perhaps don't pin all your hopes on it.