Last night, Valve announced a Steam Deck giveaway on Twitter. The company will be giving away one 512GB Steam Deck for every minute of The Game Awards (opens in a new tab) broadcast on December 8 - the more expensive model. This is also the "Steam Deck Incoming Celebration."

All you need to do is register. After all, there are a few snags. In fact, even those who seemingly meet all the requirements are running into problems with registration.

Here's how it works: First, you sign in and register by clicking the big blue registration button on Steam's Deck Drop page (opens in a new tab). Then, when you watch The Game Awards, you must also watch it on Steam.tv (opens in a new tab). Once you have registered, you can also set up to receive notifications via email or the Steam mobile app (opens in a new tab). You can also add it to your calendar.

However, the main hurdle will be that people who do not live in the US, Canada, UK, or EU will not be able to register, as the Steam Deck Club is apparently the only place to do so, probably because shipping costs to other regions are higher. Even shipping between the US and Canada is a challenge.

And VPNs are useless here.

To verify that you live in the above location, you must have purchased something on Steam between November 14, 2021 and November 14, 2022. Sad times for those who have saved money by refusing to buy games over the past year.

Your account must also be in "good standing" (i.e., not banned on your account (open in new tab)) and must not be a limited account (open in new tab). Fair enough, but the story doesn't end there.

What is really strange is that there are a lot of people in the Twitter thread (opens in new tab) who cannot register, even though they believe they live in these zones and meet all the other requirements. Some people have managed to register after refreshing the page, but there have been so many complaints that Valve has issued an official statement (opens in new tab) about the registration troubles after making some corrections.

"For those who were having trouble registering even though they were eligible to register, we have made some fixes on our end and you can now register without any problems," Valve said.

Once you have registered, you will receive a small Happy Steam Pal sticker commemorating the event.