The dock does what you would expect it to. It keeps the Steam Deck upright while connected, and it has ports on the back for charging the device, connecting to the internet, and hooking up to external displays. Reddit user ElderberryLarge9104 shared a photo of the ports on the back of the dock (embedded right) and wrote that “every unit they had on display was on a dock” at the Tokyo Game Show. This is significant in part because the docks remain unavailable to buy. Valve announced them at the same time as the Steam Deck, though said they’d be sold seprarately and available in “late spring”, a few months after the Steam Deck’s own launch. Valve then delayed them further in June, “due to parts shortages and COVID closures at our manufacturing facilities.” Docks aside, Valve’s booth at TGS is generally impressive. James is in love with it, from the “towering scale model to the weirdly impressive elegance of its logistics.” We’ll have own stand of Steam Decks at EGX London next week which will pale in comparison, but it will have 40 Steam Decks to try. (Or you can come try our collection of alt controller games instead.)
