Now that Valve is finally ready to release the Steam Machine, it might be time for the company to start looking to the future, and more specifically, to a potential follow-up to the Steam Deck. In an interview with IGN, engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais noted that we’re closer to seeing a Steam Deck 2 than ever before, and that “we’re definitely getting there.”
Griffais had previously spoken about Valve being “hard at work” on a new Steam Deck, and back in April, said that everything that the company has worked on since – the Steam Machine and the new Steam Controller – are building up to the company’s future hardware plans. “And we expect Steam Deck 2 will be a lot of the same,” he said, “where a lot of what we’re doing here will be learnings that build up to it.”
Designer Lawrence Yang had noted back in 2024 that Valve was waiting for a “generational leap” in hardware before it starts working on a follow-up to the Steam Deck. “We’re not going to do a bump every year. There’s no reason to do that.”
As for the current state of hardware, Griffais has said that the wait for such a generational leap still continues. While there have been chips, like Intel’s Arc G3, they still have to strike the right balance between raw horsepower and efficiency for a handheld device.
“I think a lot of them are more low-end laptop chips or playing in that sort of form factor that are then repurposed for handhelds and maybe not leading to, I guess the trade-off that we would’ve chosen in terms of power and better life and that and all that,” he explained.
While R&D efforts might have hit a roadblock due to ongoing shortages in memory and storage components, Griffais has noted that Valve is continuing its work towards the next generation of its hardware. “We’ll definitely be talking about that in the coming years, but right now we’re focusing on [Steam] Machine.”
Interestingly, rumors from April have indicated that Valve has been targeting a 2028 launch window for its next-generation Steam Deck. However, according to known leaker KeplerL2, these plans might get delayed due to memory shortages. However, these delays might lead to even better hardware in the next-gen handheld since Valve isn’t using semi-custom chips unlike Sony’s PS6 and Microsoft’s Project Helix.
In the meantime, Valve has confirmed that the most basic version of the Steam Machine, with 512 GB of storage and no included Steam Controller, is priced at $1,049. The company said in a statement that it couldn’t subsidize the hardware costs of the Steam Machine due to its nature as an open Linux-based PC. Since the company couldn’t guarantee additional revenue through Steam purchases by potential buyers, it had to make sure that the system isn’t sold at a loss. The same openness was also described as one of the few things that Valve is “religious” about, since it enables anyone with a PC to come up with an idea and implement it in their own way.
