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Valve's Steam Deck turned one in late February – it has seen many updates and improvements and remains a popular handheld today. Even though games become more and more powerful and not every release is compatible with the device, we will not see a next-gen Steam Deck for a few years, according to Valve designer Lawrence Yang and engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais.
Talking to Rock Paper Shotgun, both of them said they were pleasantly surprised by the reception and "the variety of use cases" they've seen.
"The biggest surprise for me has been seeing how Steam Deck has changed the way people are playing their games," shared Yang. "One thing we've learned recently is that of the people who've purchased a Steam Deck, 42% of them end up spending the majority of their Steam gaming time on Steam Deck – preferring it over their other devices."
The developers have been working hard on updates for the handheld: it got many changes ranging from a new lock screen to better performance and battery life. As Doom Eternal recently gained ray tracing support on the Deck, we might see other games join the trend soon.
Meanwhile, the company is busy improving Proton, the compatibility layer that allows Windows games to run on the Linux-based SteamOS, along with the Steam Deck Verified program.
As you see, the developers are actively working on the current handheld, so, according to Yang, "a true next-gen Deck with a significant bump in horsepower wouldn’t be for a few years."
This is nothing new though – at the end of 2022, Griffais shared that Valve is not looking to produce a more "buff" device or a new Steam Controller for now – its attention is firmly on Deck.
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