While Steam Deck 2 might already be in the works, Valve says we shouldn’t expect a new hardware revision to its popular handheld gaming device anytime soon.
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In an interview with The Verge, Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais said that Steam Deck 2 could be released as late as 2025, with the company focusing on the next great leap in performance without compromising on battery life.
Changing the performance level is not something we are taking lightly
Pierre-Loup Griffais
“It’s important to us that the Deck offers a fixed performance target for developers and that the message to customers is simple, where every Deck can play the same games,” he said. “As such, changing the performance level is not something we are taking lightly, and we only want to do so when there is a significant enough increase to be had. We also don’t want more performance to come at a significant cost to power efficiency and battery life.”
Valve’s focus on conserving battery life isn’t all that surprising because Steam Deck offers a little over two hours of uptime before requiring a top-up. Of course, the battery life could be extended by playing games at a lower power output (which could result in poor performance) or by tethering the device to a power bank, but that’s not what handheld gaming devices are made for.
As such, we believe the next iteration of the Steam Deck should focus more on battery performance than anything else, and we hope Valve figures out a way to provide a decent gaming experience without requiring constant recharge.
Griffais confirms that Valve is currently working on the successor to Steam Deck, but he also adds that it could be a few years out before they attempt a new release. Currently, Valve is “closely monitoring” the advancements made in CPU and GPU technology but has not zeroed in on anything in particular.
Steam Deck has been a phenomenal success for the Half-Life makers. Despite seeing some competition from similar devices, like the ASUS ROG Ally, Steam Deck is quickly becoming the gold standard for developers to optimize their games for. The handheld device has sold over 3m units worldwide so far.
Mufaddal Fakhruddin
Mufaddal Fakhruddin has been writing about games and technology for the past 15 years. He has lost count as to how many reviews he has written over the years, but he is sure headphone reviews make up at least 70% of that.
Been thinking about getting a Steam Deck for some time now.
Better so we can actually enjoy the first one1
I’m glad I got my Steam Deck this year!