Steam Deck 2 release date isn't close, though Valve says it's 'hard at work' on the next handheld

Taking its time to get things right

(Credit: Valve)

• 🔧 A Valve hardware programmer said the company is “hard at work” on the Steam Deck 2, even if a release date isn’t close yet

• 🤔 Valve has a good idea of what the new device is going to look like, even if there isn’t a SoC powerful enough on the market yet to make for a meaningful performance boost

• 📆 As it stands, Valve is squarely focused on the Steam Controller, which launches on May 4, plus the Steam Machine and Steam Frame coming later

• 🤷‍♂️ Some folks thought we would be due a new Steam Deck by now

It’s been a very busy time for Valve’s hardware division, and it seems like there are no signs of it slowing down, as a new interview has confirmed the brand is “hard at work” on Steam Deck 2.

As per a new interview with IGN, Valve programmer Pierre-Loup Griffais has said that the company is “hard at work” on the next generation of Steam Deck, and that it has a “pretty good idea of what the next version of Steam Deck is going to be”.

He noted that Valve was working backwards from “silicon advancements and architectural improvements” to develop a truly next-gen device, and said that there isn’t anything currently available in terms of SoCs it thinks could deliver more “demarcated” performance.

In essence, the current crop of Ryzen Z2 Extreme handhelds, such as the Lenovo Legion Go 2 and Asus ROG Xbox Ally X, don’t necessarily offer enough of a performance bump over the OG Steam Deck in Valve’s eyes to make a whole new handheld the key focus in the immediacy.

A previous interview IGN had with Griffais also iterated similar thoughts, where he discussed that Valve was “making sure… that it’s [Steam Deck 2] a worthwhile enough performance upgrade to make sense as a standalone product.”

There’s no firm release window given on the Steam Deck 2 as yet, although it seems like it could well be a hefty upgrade in terms of performance over the original, which has arguably been missing from the gaming handheld space at the moment.

We’re still at a stage where the Van Gogh APU it put inside the original Steam Deck was essentially rebadged when it was put into the standard Asus ROG Xbox Ally, so progress isn’t as brisk as Valve would obviously like.

For reference, the original Steam Deck launched over four years ago in February 2022, with the OLED model following in November 2023. Griffais had previously said to The Verge in September 2023 that the next-gen Steam Deck was a couple of years away, leading some to believe it may have been ready by now, although that’s clearly not the case.

As it stands, Valve has more immediate things to focus on, such as the immediate release of the Steam Controller, and the fact that the Steam Machine and Steam Frame will launch this year, even if we’ve had no further word on the Steam Machine’s price or an exact window.

Up next: Steam Controller review roundup: ‘a massive improvement over the flawed original’

Reece Bithrey is a journalist with bylines for Trusted Reviews, Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, TechRadar and more. He also has his own blog, UNTITLED, and graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in International History and Politics in 2023.