Valve has mentioned it’s “laborious at work” on Steam Deck 2, whereas persevering with to work on getting the Steam Machine, Steam Controller, and Steam Body out the door.
In November final yr, when Valve introduced its trio of recent {hardware} gadgets, IGN requested Valve programmer Pierre-Loup Griffais about Steam Deck 2, and he instructed us that Valve was “ensuring… that it is a worthwhile sufficient efficiency improve to make sense as a standalone product.”
Now, 5 months later, with Valve confirming a launch date and value for Steam Controller, we thought we’d ask Griffais for an replace on Steam Deck 2.
“We’re laborious at work on it,” he replied. “And clearly each step of the best way, in the event you have a look at our {hardware} initiatives over time, you may draw a straight line from the unique Steam Controller and Steam Machine to Steam Deck, to all the pieces that we’re saying and delivery this yr. And we count on Steam Deck 2 can be a variety of the identical the place a variety of what we’re doing right here can be learnings that construct as much as it.”
So, no agency launch window on Steam Deck 2, but it surely feels like Valve has each intention of releasing the system sooner or later. And, based mostly on Griffais’ feedback each now and final yr, efficiency would be the key query Valve should reply earlier than Steam Deck 2 turns into a actuality.
“We’re not interested by getting to some extent the place it is 20 or 30 and even 50% extra efficiency on the similar battery life,” Griffais instructed us final yr. “We wish one thing a little bit bit extra demarcated than that. So we have been working again from silicon developments and architectural enhancements, and I believe we’ve a reasonably good thought of what the following model of Steam Deck goes to be, however proper now there is not any choices in that panorama, within the SoC [System on a Chip] panorama, that we expect would actually be a next-gen efficiency Steam Deck.”
The Steam Deck handheld launched in February 2022, with the OLED mannequin popping out November 2023. Steam Deck is over 4 years previous now, and whereas there’s a lengthy listing of Steam Deck-verified video games to play, it does battle to run some trendy PC video games nicely. Certainly, in September 2023, Pierre-Loup Griffais instructed The Verge that the following Steam Deck was not less than a few years away, which had some hoping for the following model in time for the vacations final yr.
Hopefully Steam Deck 2 may have improved battery life, when it will definitely comes out. As IGN’s Steam Deck assessment factors out, battery life is a “huge downside” whereas operating Home windows. Even when operating the native SteamOS on the system, we famous “battery life nonetheless wasn’t nice,” citing the truth that God of Conflict on default settings chewed by a totally charged Steam Deck in simply 90 minutes.
Within the meantime, we’ve acquired lots extra on Steam Controller, together with our assessment and our Valve interview in full.
Wesley is Director, Information at IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You possibly can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.