A year after its official launch, it’s clear that Valve’s Steam Deck PC Gaming handheld has been an undeniable success. Despite an early production backlog, Valve’s device has received a generally warm response from reviewers (including us), and currently holds the third position on its own. world bestseller list (whatever that means, exactly).
But after a year in a market focused on performance and upgrades, people were understandably wondering when the device’s sequel would arrive. Showed limits in recent gamesHowever, a recent interview with Valve designer Lawrence Yang and engineer Pierre Lou Griffe rock paper scissors shotgun It threw cold water on anyone hoping for a more powerful Steam Deck to appear anytime within the next few years.
Yang admits that the device’s success “made me even more excited to take a closer look at what could be improved.” But he basically makes it clear that there is absolutely no chance that your existing Steam deck (or any deck you might buy in the near future) will be obsolete (at least in terms of performance) for years to come. Yang told Game Outlet, “There won’t be a true next-generation deck with significantly more horsepower for a few years.”
Of course, the next iteration of Steam Deck will be Focused on screen and battery improvements, rather than pushing more pixels. As such, we didn’t expect the company to surpass his AMD Van Gogh-based custom APU in 2023. Now it looks like gamers on the move will have to wait until at least 2026 (or maybe he’s the 2025 holiday season?). Get a true follow-up device from Valve.
This leaves handheld competitors with Ayaneo A fairly large window to offer something much more powerful. So far, however, these devices have been far more expensive than Steam Decks and are to varying degrees less sophisticated. I imagine we’ll see how it unfolds.
Of course, Valve has no real business reason to tell anyone about its plans for future Steam Decks. , the company could suddenly become aggressive about plans for more powerful portable PCs.
Assuming they’re working behind closed doors on the design of their next-gen devices, Valve’s ability to source the new components they need will certainly allow them to move forward with those plans by early 2026. I want to believe go gamer in me.
