Valve’s Steam Deck handheld has been a massive success, bringing portable PC gaming across the world. However, with many new games tapping out the power of Valve’s handheld, many are already hoping for a Steam Deck 2.
With games such as Baldur’s Gate 3 running very poorly on the Steam Deck and Starfield causing horrid graphical issues on the handheld, the current version of the handheld is reaching its limits. Furthermore, with the Nintendo Switch 2 around the corner bringing DLSS and ray-tracing to handhelds, there is a sense that the Steam Deck is already outdated.
In an interview with CNBC, Valve’s Pierre-Lou Griffais revealed that the studio believes the current version of the Steam Deck is still good for the next few years. However, there are also plans for the inevitable Steam Deck 2.
“Right now we’re kind of looking at this performance target that we have as a stable target for a couple years,” Griffais said. “We think that it’s a pretty sweet spot in terms of being able to play all the experiences from this new generation and so far, the new releases are coming out with great experiences on Steam Deck.”
The Valve employee revealed that the company is working with developers to ensure that upcoming releases come to the handheld in a playable state. With specific Steam Deck optimisations on the way, more performance could be sapped out of the current hardware.
“Obviously, we’re working with developers on future releases and we’re monitoring the feedback there but so far, I think it has been pretty good on the horsepower front,” they said.
With Steam Deck 2 years away at the time of writing, Valve’s handheld does have a tough future ahead of it. With AAA games asking for monstrous specs on PC, and many suffering from performance issues on the platform, Steam Deck users could miss out on a number of new game releases.