Valve Corporation does not plan on launching a faster version of its Steam Deck handheld PC for years to come, based on the latest information.
Speaking during an interview with CNBC, Steam Deck developer at Valve, Pierre-Loup Griffais, stated that it could be late 2025 or beyond before a faster version of the handheld PC is launched, because the company wishes to see a leap in performance without a significant hit to battery life.
Griffais said that the PC gaming experience has some choices associated with it, where you have to choose what to buy and what you build for the right level of configuration. The Steam Deck aims to make the platform “extremely easy” to get into, so that you can have an all-in-one package that you can buy to experience your Steam library and PC gaming in general.
He mentioned that Valve has done a lot of work on SteamOS, the operating system that powers the Steam Deck. At its core, the idea is to have all the PC games in a more console-ized experience. The SteamOS simply lets you pick up the system, install a game without really having to think about it. However, if you want to dig deep and get the flexibility and power that PC offers, you can get to that too. He mentioned that Valve would also like to work with other hardware manufacturers so that they may adopt SteamOS in the future.
Regarding the possibility of a future hardware upgrade, Griffais said that Valve is currently looking at the best performance targets for a couple of years with the existing version of Steam Deck. He said that it offers a “pretty sweet spot” for playing current generation games. Valve is working with developers on future releases, but, so far, the Steam Deck has been pretty good in terms of horsepower, he added.
