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A Steam Deck 2 is coming, just not as soon as you hoped
- The Steam Deck’s developers say that a Steam Deck 2 may not come until 2025 or later.
- Valve is waiting for there to be a leap in performance that doesn’t take a huge hit to battery life.
- They don’t anticipate that will be possible in the next few years.
When it comes to new gaming hardware, companies like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo tend to be pretty secretive until it’s near time for launch. That’s not the case with Valve, however. The Steam Deck’s developers have not been afraid to talk about a Steam Deck 2 and their plans for the handheld. Now we’re getting news that the system may be years away.
In an interview with The Verge, Steam Deck developer, Pierre-Loup Griffais, discussed when he thinks a Steam Deck 2 could arrive. According to the developer, that day may not come until late 2025 or beyond.
The reason why the next generation of the Steam Deck may be years away appears to mostly be due to battery life concerns. Griffais wants to see a jump in performance that doesn’t significantly drain the battery.
In a quote provided to the outlet, Graffais explains:
It’s important to us that the Deck offers a fixed performance target for developers, and that the message to customers is simple, where every Deck can play the same games. As such, changing the performance level is not something we are taking lightly, and we only want to do so when there is a significant enough increase to be had. We also don’t want more performance to come at a significant cost to power efficiency and battery life. I don’t anticipate such a leap to be possible in the next couple of years, but we’re still closely monitoring innovations in architectures and fabrication processes to see where things are going there.
One of the Achilles heels of the Steam Deck has been its short battery life. It has a battery that can provide as much as eight hours of gameplay, but on average, it lasts for about two hours with default settings on. Last year, Graffais mentioned in an interview that battery life was a top priority for the next Steam Deck.
Even if a Steam Deck 2 is years away, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Valve won’t give the system a refresh. For example, Nintendo upgraded the Switch with a better battery and display. Nothing is stopping Valve from doing something similar to prolong the life of its handheld.