Valve has confirmed that a successor to its handheld gaming device is still in development, although details remain scarce for now. During a recent interview with IGN, Valve software engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais said the company is “hard at work” on what many expect to be the Steam Deck 2.
The confirmation comes amid growing competition in the handheld PC gaming space, where newer devices have pushed performance boundaries beyond what the original Steam Deck delivered. Even so, Valve appears in no rush to release a follow-up unless it can meet a much higher performance bar.
A Trendsetter For Handheld Gaming
Valve first introduced the Steam Deck in 2021, before bringing it to market a year later. It runs on a custom AMD APU built on Zen 2 CPU and RDNA 2 GPU architectures, allowing the handheld to carve out a niche as a portable PC gaming device powered by SteamOS. The company later refined the formula with a 2023 refresh that added an OLED display, improved battery life, and several quality-of-life enhancements.
Many have positioned the Steam Deck as a Nintendo Switch equivalent for portable PC gaming, although it remains closely tied to the Steam ecosystem. Its success has since prompted other brands to enter the segment with their own handheld gaming PCs, with the Lenovo Legion Go S currently standing out as the only third-party device to ship with SteamOS out of the box.
Valve Wants A Bigger Leap, Not An Incremental Upgrade
Despite confirming development, Griffais did not share specifics on hardware, features, or a release timeline. However, he emphasised that Valve views its hardware efforts as part of a unified ecosystem, where each product builds on lessons from previous ones.
Griffais noted that Valve’s hardware journey, from earlier projects like the Steam Controller and Steam Machine to the Steam Deck, forms a continuous progression. The same philosophy will apply to the next-generation handheld.
Crucially, Valve has already made it clear that the Steam Deck 2 will not be a minor upgrade. The company previously stated that even a 50% performance uplift at the same power level would not justify a new model, suggesting that it is aiming for something closer to a generational leap in performance.
Rumours Point To 2028 Launch, New AMD Chip
While Valve remains tight-lipped, industry insiders and leakers suggest the Steam Deck 2 could arrive around 2028. Current speculation also points to the use of an off-the-shelf AMD SoC, such as the Ryzen Z2 Extreme, which is already appearing in newer Windows-based handheld gaming PCs.
That said, these plans are far from final. Ongoing issues surrounding memory and storage supply could still impact development timelines and hardware decisions in the coming years.
More Hardware On The Way
On a related development, Valve recently officially introduced the latest iteration of its Steam Controller, which offers vast improvements over the original. It is slated to launch next month for US$99 (~RM390) in the US, while international availability is still unconfirmed. Chances are, like existing Valve hardware, local users may have to rely on the grey market if they wish to get one.
The controller is the first of three upcoming hardware releases, followed by a next-generation Steam Machine and the new Steam Frame VR headset. While these devices are currently slated for release within the year, rumours suggest potential delays due to the same ongoing supply constraints affecting the wider industry.
(Source: IGN)
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