The Steam Deck It has been on the market for less than two years, but rumors about when a next version could be released have been around for a long time. In fact, Valve has publicly acknowledged that its intention in the future is to introduce new generations of the console. However, Gabe Newell’s people want to stick to realistic goals and insist that There are at least “a couple of years” left to see the first major update of the device.
Within the framework of the Tokyo Game Show, Pierre-Loup Griffaisone of the minds behind the Steam Deck, told The Verge that there is a crucial element to consider before launching a new console. Which is it? That the jump in performance that comes with a more powerful processor does not significantly impact battery life.
Certainly, it is easier said than done. That is why Valve does not want to rush its plans to evolve the Steam Deck into a more powerful and modern model. In fact, Griffais himself believes that it will take at least a couple more years before achieving that balance of increased performance without loss of autonomy.
“It’s important to us that the Steam Deck offers a fixed performance target for developers and that the message to customers is simple: that each Deck can play the same games. As such, changing the performance level is not something we Let’s take it lightly and only want to do it when there is a significant enough increase. We also don’t want increased performance to come at a significant cost in power efficiency and battery life. I don’t anticipate that jump being possible for a couple of years. years, but we are still closely monitoring innovations in architectures and manufacturing processes to see where things are going.”
Pierre-Loup Griffais, a The Verge.
Griffais did not give specific dates that Valve could target for the release of a new version of the Steam Deck. However, that “couple of years” reference could mean that we’d hopefully see a generational leap on the console from the end of 2025 onwards.
Of course, the company cannot rest on its laurels either. A key element that can influence how quickly a Steam Deck 2 arrives is the performance of the current model with AAA games. Valve’s idea is that users can access the same game library from both a PC gaming as through your portable console. However, this is proving to be increasingly complex.
Optimize video games with high hardware demands so that they offer a similar experience on the Steam Deck It is difficult and consumes time and study resources. Gabe Newell’s people have to work closely with the developers to achieve the most usable gameplay possible. Even if this leads to crucial losses in the graphic section. In case of starfield It is possibly the most notable today.
Keep an eye on the competition
On the other hand, Valve must observe how a multitude of portable consoles It arrives with the intention of taking away the market from the Steam Deck. The ASUS ROG Ally is the main installed threat, but we must not forget the multiple AYANEO models or the promising Lenovo Legion Go.
Any improvements that these devices can offer will surely accelerate plans around a Steam Deck 2. But launching a second generation is also not as simple as taking new components, inserting them into the case and putting them on sale. The creators of the device have already indicated in the past that the story is far from being that simple, and that any change—no matter how minor—may require a total redesign of the console.
This is something that Pierre-Loup Griffais himself stated last March, when the rumor of a possible Steam Deck with an OLED screen began to circulate. “I think people see things as an incremental version and assume it’s easy to do”he indicated at that time.