Valve has ‘a pretty good idea’ of what Steam Deck 2 is going to be, but it’s not ready yet
It has to be “a worthwhile enough performance upgrade”, its software engineer says
Valve has an idea of what the Steam Deck 2 will be capable of, but the hardware isn’t ready yet.
That’s according to Valve software engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais, who – while promoting the newly announced Steam Machine, Steam Frame and Steam Controller – was asked by IGN if there were plans to upgrade the Steam Deck any time soon.
Griffais replied that while Valve does have an idea of what the Steam Deck’s successor will be capable of in terms of performance, it’s not yet at a stage where such a device can be made.
“Obviously the Steam Deck’s not our focus today, but the same things we’ve said in the past where we’re really interested to work on what’s next for Steam Deck… the thing we’re making sure of is that it’s a worthwhile enough performance upgrade to make sense as a standalone product,” he explained.
“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.
“So 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 [System on a Chip] landscape, that we think would truly be a next-gen performance Steam Deck.”
Two years ago Griffais told The Verge that Valve wasn’t expecting to release a next-gen successor to the Steam Deck “in the next couple of years”.
“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,” Griffais told the publication in September 2023.
“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.
“I don’t anticipate such a leap to be possible in the next couple of years, but we’re still closely monitoring innovations in architectures and fabrication processes to see where things are going there.”
Earlier this week Valve announced a new TV-focused PC called the Steam Machine, a new wireless streaming-focused VR headset called Steam Frame, and a new Steam Controller. All three are set to release in early 2026, with pricing still to be confirmed.
