Steam Deck 2 Is Already in Valve’s Plans, But Explains Why It’s Staying Quiet for Now
Today was a big day for Valve, with the company announcing three new products in its revived Steam hardware line. However, one expected product was missing: the Steam Deck 2. The new handheld console is already in Valve’s plans, but the company explained why it’s not ready to talk about it yet.
There will almost certainly be a new Steam Deck in the future, but Valve says it’s not the right time to focus on it. The reason is simple — the next version must be a real evolution, not just a minor power boost over the current model.
Engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais from Valve repeated a point the company has made before: Steam Deck 2 must represent a clear technological leap, not just an upgrade.
Technology Still Needs to Mature
Steam Deck 2 should be something truly new — a new generation of handheld that makes sense to launch only when it offers meaningful improvements over what’s possible today with current hardware.
“We’re not interested in getting to a point where it’s 20 or 30 or even 50% more performance at the same battery life. We want something a little bit more demarcated than that,” explained Griffais.
He added: “We’ve been working back from silicon advancements and architectural improvements, and 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.”
In short, a small power bump isn’t enough to justify building Steam Deck 2. Current chip technology isn’t advanced enough yet to make the leap Valve wants.
