However Valve received’t say the primary phrase about its subsequent gaming handheld, the Steam Deck 2.
“Steam Deck shouldn’t be what we’re right here to speak about at the moment,” Valve software program engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais advised us on the very starting of our briefing. “It’s form of associated however probably not,” he stated, earlier than launching right into a dialogue of how the Steam Deck’s learnings underpinned each new product that it’s saying at the moment.
The corporate wouldn’t inform us if the brand new drift-resistant TMR joysticks it’s introducing within the Steam Controller and Steam Body’s wands will make it right into a future Steam Deck, both. “We’re all the time desirous about Steam Deck and methods to enhance it sooner or later,” says Valve {hardware} engineer Steve Cardinali after I ask. (He additionally says Valve presently has no plans to supply the TMR joysticks as a drop-in module for the unique Deck.)
Whereas Valve has repeatedly confirmed that the Steam Deck could have sequels, the corporate’s additionally repeatedly been clear that it’s in no hurry to convey them to market. Since 2022, Griffais has consistently told us that Valve needs to see a big leap in efficiency and effectivity earlier than it takes the plunge. “We actually do need to await a generational leap in compute with out sacrificing battery life earlier than we ship the true second technology of Steam Deck,” is how Valve’s Lawrence Yang concisely reiterated it to Reviews.org in 2024.
The query now could be: will Valve discover that leap in efficiency and effectivity from x86? As a result of whereas Valve initially thought its standalone VR headset may run on the prevailing Steam Deck’s chip, the corporate simply introduced the Steam Frame with an Arm processor as an alternative — utilizing emulation to let it play some Home windows video games domestically on the headset. Griffais tells me he thinks Arm has “a whole lot of potential” in future handhelds sometime.
It’s additionally potential Valve already discovered its subsequent Steam Deck chip in AMD’s future roadmaps — prefer it did with the unique Steam Deck — and is solely ready for it to reach.
