Steam Deck 2 Is Already In The Works, Says Gabe Newell

The Steam Deck is barely a week into its life cycle right now, but Valve boss Gabe Newell has already confirmed that its successor is already being planned.

WCCFTech reports that Newell already confirmed the Steam Deck 2 in a recent interview with EDGE Magazine. He also said that the way the current Deck is selling basically "informed" them that a next-generation, more powerful version of the handheld is part of their foreseeable future.

Here is his statement in full:

"We thought the entry price was going to be the critical factor, but it turns out that far and away the most popular SKU is the most expensive one. That's an example of us being a little surprised by what our customers are telling us. They're basically saying, 'We would like an even more expensive version of this', in terms of horsepower capabilities or whatever. You know, that's why we always love to get something out there and ship it. Because we learn a lot from that, and it helps frame our thinking for Steam Deck 2."

While the current-gen Steam Deck is already a powerful gaming handheld in its own right, Newell hinted at what else its successor could do in terms of hardware, saying that it could potentially feature full VR support.

According to the Valve head honcho, however, implementing a feature so power-hungry in a battery-powered device is a massive undertaking, but the current hardware is already "a stepping stone."

While already powerful enough to run even AAA games released during the past few years, the Steam Deck still doesn't have enough juice to play VR. But that could change with ever more powerful chips being in production from AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA.

But don't expect the Steam Deck 2 to come out for a couple of years at least, as Valve will require that much time to take advantage of naturally advancing silicon technologies, writes PCMag. So, who knows? Maybe the next Deck could have enough power to run games at 60 FPS and perhaps even support both VR and ray tracing-though it would be best not to hold your breath.

How Has The Steam Deck Fared So Far?

In short, it looks like Valve has finally hit the jackpot when it comes to their gaming hardware after the disastrous Steam Machines concept of the mid-2010s.

Many reviews of the Deck praise it for the amount of power Valve was able to cram inside its housing while also having "plenty of room to grow" in terms of both hardware and software, as reviewed by Polygon.

Valve wasn't joking when they said that this thing could run almost anything on Steam, which is just slightly bigger than the Nintendo Switch. Various reviews have shown it running some of the latest AAA games, including FromSoftware's "Elden Ring" as shown in this video by IGN: