Steam Deck 2 Upgrades Teased by Valve

Steam Deck manufacturer Valve has teased what sort of upgrades might be seen in a second revision of the PC handheld. Over the course of 2022, the Steam Deck has been one of the most popular new gaming platforms around. And while Valve has struggled to keep up with demand for Steam Deck throughout most of the year, the company has also made clear that this initial version of the hardware won’t be the final one. Even though a “Steam Deck 2” hasn’t been formally revealed just yet, Valve has now indicated more of what it will look to improve in the next version of the platform. 

In a conversation with The Verge, Steam Deck designer Pierre-Loup Griffais opened up a bit more about what Valve is internally focused on when it comes to future versions of the handheld. Currently, Griffais stressed that Valve is quite happy with the specs that the Steam Deck offers as it allows developers to only have to optimize their games for one version of the system. That being said, a performance boost is something that Valve definitely wants to give to Steam Deck 2, although it might take a bit for this updated edition of the hardware to roll out. 

“Right now the fact that all Steam Decks can play the same games and that we have one target for users to understand what kind of performance level to expect when you’re playing and for developers to understand what to target… there’s a lot of value in having that one spec,” Griffais said. “I think we’ll opt to keep the one performance level for a little bit longer and only look at changing the performance level when there is a significant gain to be had.”

Despite being so upfront about working on future models of the Steam Deck, Valve hasn’t committed to a release window of any sort for the next phase of the platform. As such, it’s still hard to know when Griffais and those at Valve might think there are “significant gains” to be had in terms of performance. Still, given how transparent Valve has been with its ongoing work on Steam Deck, perhaps we’ll learn more about what a Steam Deck 2 could look like throughout 2023. 

Have you snagged a Steam Deck for yourself this year? Or are you waiting for Valve to release a revision of the platform before you look to buy it? Let me know for yourself either down in the comments or shoot me a message on social media at @MooreMan12.