Valve is "Hard at Work" on Steam Deck 2 Focused on Performance Upgrades
In a recent interview, Valve explained that they're "hard at work" on Steam Deck 2, with a focus on performance upgrades, but there's still no release window in mind just yet.
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Optimizing for Steam Deck
According to a recent interview with IGN, Valve programmer Pierre-Loup Griffais says they're "hard at work" on Steam Deck 2, but it sounds like it could still be quite a ways away. For this year, Valve is focused on launching the Steam Machine standalone console-style gaming PC, Steam Frame VR headset, and Steam Controller.
Earlier today, Valve confirmed the Steam Controller launches extremely soon for $100. The other two are still expected this year.
But the idea of a Steam Deck 2 is particularly exciting.
“We're hard at work on it. And obviously every step of the way, if you look at our hardware projects over the years, you can draw a straight line from the original Steam Controller and Steam Machine to Steam Deck, to everything that we're announcing and shipping this year. And we expect Steam Deck 2 will be a lot of the same where a lot of what we're doing here will be learnings that build up to it.”
- Valve programmer, Pierre-Loup Griffais
I've had a Steam Deck ever since around the time it first launched. Originally, I had the LCD model, but I sold that and switched to the White OLED model. Generally, it's an amazing device, and the screen is tremendous. However, the biggest issue for me is definitely battery life. Hopefully, that's a focused area of improvement in the next iteration.
With three products already launching this year, the absolute earliest I'd expect to see a Steam Deck 2 would be late 2027, but even that feels early if they're going to be focused on the new products for at least one year. They've already revealed how the Verification program will adapt to the new hardware releases.
They have a track record of supporting products for quite a while.
"I think we have a pretty good idea of what the next version of Steam Deck is going to be, but right now there's no offerings in that landscape, in the SoC [System on a Chip] landscape, that we think would truly be a next-gen performance Steam Deck.”
- Valve programmer, Pierre-Loup Griffais
If they can manage to improve the horsepower and performance while at least maintaining current battery life (but hopefully improving), then it stands to reason they'll have another winner on their hands.
In a recent survey, it was found that 40% of game developers are thinking about ways to bring games to the Steam Deck. That's even more than Android, iOS, and both Switch platforms.
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