No Steam Deck 2 For At Least a Few Years

[GFreeman]

Although there were some rumors earlier, Valve's designer Lawrence Yang and engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais, have confirmed that a new and more powerful Steam Deck will not be coming in the next few years. The Steam Deck has been quite popular and has somewhat revived the handheld gaming market. Despite having troubles with production and stock early on, it has been selling like hotcakes.

A year from its official launch, first rumors about an upgraded Steam Deck started to show up. The Steam Deck might be struggling to run some of the latest games, which means that Valve is certainly looking closely at what can be improved. Speaking to Rock Paper Shotgun, Lawrence Yang said that "a true next-gen Deck with a significant bump in horsepower wouldn't be for a few years."



This also does not mean that Valve will not improve some things, as it is certainly working on screen and battery improvements, as rumored late last year. This probably means that we might see an improved Steam Deck, but the true successor probably will not come before 2026, or late 2025. In the meantime, the current Steam Deck is selling very well, and is currently third on its global top sellers list, just behind Counter Strike: Global Offensive and Apex Legends games.



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[claylomax]

Good.

 

[chrcoluk]

Great news, not a fan of constant new hardware updates which hastens obsolescence.

 

[TheDeeGee]

New Steam Controller would be nice.

 

[stimpy88]

This will be a mistake if it can't keep up with playing at a decent framerate. I think an update every 18 months would be the sweetspot.

 

[bearClaw5]

New Steam Controller would be nice.

Yeah, I'd love a controller that was basically a steam deck. The layout is perfect aside from the shoulder buttons.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I mean thats smart, seeing as the average life span of a console is upto 5 years or more even?

Imagine if console releases basically turned into a call of duty or FIFA release cycle where they would release one every year and people went to buy the new one. That would be completely insane. Its not something that would work. People just dont have that much disposable income and lots of old consoles would be heading to landfill as recycling technology tends to take time.

 

[SOAREVERSOR]

Great news, not a fan of constant new hardware updates which hastens obsolescence.

So, a console is what you want.

I mean thats smart, seeing as the average life span of a console is upto 5 years or more even?

Imagine if console releases basically turned into a call of duty or FIFA release cycle where they would release one every year and people went to buy the new one. That would be completely insane. Its not something that would work. People just dont have that much disposable income and lots of old consoles would be heading to landfill as recycling technology tends to take time.

It's usually a bit more. It's also worth remembering that consoles (outside of Nintendo) are sold at a loss for the most part with the company making the money back off game sales and fees to publishers and developers over the long run. The best example is that SONY lost hundreds on each PS3 sold. The amount came down with the PS3 slim and then down again with the next version. But they made it all back by taking a portion of each game sold. So this is not just about customers who can't keep up with a constant new release sample it's that it takes years for the console maker to make their money back and start to get to the profit phase of it. This doesn't end when the new console comes out either. They keep making money through online service fees and game sales for years after the console has been EOL'd. Developers love it because they have a stable hardware target platform and can learn to extract every bit of performance from it.

To go further this is also one of the reasons why the cost of PC parts keeps exploding where consoles go back to stable and don't increase as much. PC parts keep getting vastly more complex and costly to manufacture and no company can sell them at a loss and then recoup it later. Which is why the future of PC gaming is in the cloud. That way some company can just buy up all these parts and then charge you $ per month for 1080p 60hz medium details, $$ for 1440p high details at 144hz, and then $$$ for 4k 144hz ultra details.

Steam Deck is pretty much an attempt to bridge the gap between PC and console. Economically it's working like a console, for developers it's a static hardware target to work with, for PC gamers you get access to your PC games, Valve is acting like the fee per game taker here. I think that's the smart solution and the most stable one. Keep it static as long as you possibly can and then release the new one. It's a win for all involved. Outside of those with tons of spare cash who love creating e-waste for no good reason.

 

[Dredi]

This will be a mistake if it can't keep up with playing at a decent framerate. I think an update every 18 months would be the sweetspot.

Upgrade once per console gen seems more logical. Unless you can get a much better battery life, in which case a mid gen update makes sense.

 

[agatong55]

Good, with my luck I usually buy something then a new version comes out just a short time later. So I may pull the trigger then here in a few weeks.

 

[Colddecked]

This will be a mistake if it can't keep up with playing at a decent framerate. I think an update every 18 months would be the sweetspot.

SD will be viable as long as current gen consoles since the architectures are so similar. I think most SD owners know not to expect playing triple A titles higher than 60fps at native res. If you want newer (and way more expensive) there will be other companies like Aya or GPD that will release newer more powerful handheld pcs.

 

[tvshacker]

So this means we'll probably get Steam Deck 3 when HL3 comes out.

 

[chrcoluk]

So, a console is what you want.

If consoles were open, unencrypted easily accessible saves, open modding, cheat engine etc. yeah I probably would abandon PC gaming to be fair. But because they not, I mix both types, but currently dont have any portable gaming, hence my interest in the deck.

 

[r9]

Initially when got introduced and then delayed the release I thought that it will be obsolete from the get go.
So I started looking for a retro handheld for like $50 then looked at more powerful ones then looked at ones that can do cloud and steam gaming and so on and I got to like $250-300 and then started looking at the other windows handhelds that were like $1000+ and all of sudden the 64GB Steam Deck for $399 started to look better and better.
So I got one and it exceeded my expectations. I've tried a dozen of games and it runs most at 45-60fps with med-high settings.
I though that 7" would be too small but it works great for the close distance you are playing at works great.
The whole thing just feels like a quality product all around.
One thing I could change would be I would get rid off both touch pads that would make the deck smaller and little cheaper.

 

[trsttte]

They are very competitive for now but once mobile zen4 handhelds start to hit the market the situation will start to change. This is more like a pc than a console and has other competitors, as much as they don't intend to have frequent upgraded versions, competition in the market will force them to if they want to stay relevant.

 

[Solaris17]

This is good. I hope they continue to take there time and make sure manufacturing is where they want it as well.

it’s crazy they are tackling not only the hardware but the open source front as well with modifications to proton.

impressive imo

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

Good I just got mine. We dont need a new version every 6 months to a year.

 

[Space Lynx]

this is good, because it means the next steam deck will be using 3nm node APU and OLED screen (I'd bet money on it), I bet they will also figure out a way to get Freesync to work next round too.

that's going to be epic as hell

 

[Squared]

I look at the Steam Deck as a PC with many of the perks of a console. I built a PC about 5 years ago and still use it, so I got about a console's life out of it. But I wouldn't have bought that PC in any of the last 4 years.

This move might be great for owners of the original Deck, but if I buy a Deck now I'll be buying a PC with a short useful life. It would have to have a price to reflect that for me to consider it.

Valve doesn't have to avoid releasing newer Decks to keep the original from being absolute. It's current as long as a new game can't be Certified on Deck without being good on the original.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

I look at the Steam Deck as a PC with many of the perks of a console. I built a PC about 5 years ago and still use it, so I got about a console's life out of it. But I wouldn't have bought that PC in any of the last 4 years.

This move might be great for owners of the original Deck, but if I buy a Deck now I'll be buying a PC with a short useful life. It would have to have a price to reflect that for me to consider it.

Valve doesn't have to avoid releasing newer Decks to keep the original from being absolute. It's current as long as a new game can't be Certified on Deck without being good on the original.

You are clearly not seeing that the majority of games could still be played on it add nauseum, you hopefully can in 20 years though I accept servers die but emulsion.
Anyway, I disagree, better would be nice obviously but to write off the Steamdeck early is a massive mistake 1200£ handhelds are just catching up in GPU ip and performance.

 

[Garrus]

Great news, not a fan of constant new hardware updates which hastens obsolescence.

Because you already own one. If someone doesn't want to buy one now, that's not a good thing. The point is to entice the people that haven't bought one yet.

 

[watzupken]

There exists other Steam Deck competitors out there that constantly updates their hardware. But it is pointless and I really wonder how many units they sell with each upgrade cycle. These are marketed as "consoles" and ideally should be see annual hardware upgrades. What will happen if there are annual upgrades will be that their buyers will need to keep getting a new version since games will be optimized for better hardware. So if you own an older version, the experience will be badly compromised in a year or 2.

 

[InhaleOblivion]

Me; Looks at my Steam Deck. "Don't worry you're safe, for now."
Arguably, one of the best pieces of Linux hardware ever released. That's open enough to even put Windows 10/11 on if you wanted to.

 

[chrcoluk]

Because you already own one. If someone doesn't want to buy one now, that's not a good thing. The point is to entice the people that haven't bought one yet.

How would that entice them? I am more likely to buy something if its cheaper and if I know it will be the latest model for longer.

 

[Wasteland]

There exists other Steam Deck competitors out there that constantly updates their hardware. But it is pointless and I really wonder how many units they sell with each upgrade cycle. These are marketed as "consoles" and ideally should be see annual hardware upgrades. What will happen if there are annual upgrades will be that their buyers will need to keep getting a new version since games will be optimized for better hardware. So if you own an older version, the experience will be badly compromised in a year or 2.

Yeah, the Steam Deck "competitors" also typically cost 3-4x times more money. I imagine they keep updating their hardware because edging the Deck on hardware is the only advantage they can realistically offer.