Oliver Cragg / Android Authority
TL;DR
- The Steam Deck’s builders say {that a} Steam Deck 2 could not come till 2025 or later.
- Valve is ready for there to be a leap in efficiency that doesn’t take an enormous hit to battery life.
- They don’t anticipate that will probably be doable within the subsequent few years.
In relation to new gaming {hardware}, corporations like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are typically fairly secretive till it’s close to time for launch. That’s not the case with Valve, nevertheless. The Steam Deck’s builders haven’t been afraid to speak a couple of Steam Deck 2 and their plans for the hand-held. Now we’re getting information that the system could also be years away.
In an interview with The Verge, Steam Deck developer, Pierre-Loup Griffais, mentioned when he thinks a Steam Deck 2 may arrive. In line with the developer, that day could not come till late 2025 or past.
The explanation why the subsequent era of the Steam Deck could also be years away seems to largely be resulting from battery life issues. Griffais needs to see a leap in efficiency that doesn’t considerably drain the battery.
In a quote supplied to the outlet, Graffais explains:
It’s essential to us that the Deck provides a hard and fast efficiency goal for builders, and that the message to clients is easy, the place each Deck can play the identical video games. As such, altering the efficiency degree will not be one thing we’re taking calmly, and we solely need to accomplish that when there’s a important sufficient improve available. We additionally don’t need extra efficiency to return at a big value to energy effectivity and battery life. I don’t anticipate such a leap to be doable within the subsequent couple of years, however we’re nonetheless carefully monitoring improvements in architectures and fabrication processes to see the place issues are going there.
One of many Achilles heels of the Steam Deck has been its quick battery life. It has a battery that may present as a lot as eight hours of gameplay, however on common, it lasts for about two hours with default settings on. Final yr, Graffais talked about in an interview that battery life was a high precedence for the subsequent Steam Deck.
Even when a Steam Deck 2 is years away, that doesn’t essentially imply that Valve received’t give the system a refresh. For instance, Nintendo upgraded the Change with a greater battery and show. Nothing is stopping Valve from doing one thing just like delay the lifetime of its handheld.