It Still Isn’t Time for a Steam Deck 2, but Valve Says It Now Has a ‘Pretty Good Idea’ of What It’s Going to Be

It has been two years since Valve released the Steam Deck OLED, a refined update to the original handheld gaming device that first arrived in February 2022. Even before the OLED model launched, fans were already asking the question: when is Steam Deck 2 coming? At the time, Valve made it clear that a true next-gen Deck would not arrive until 2025 or 2026, because the hardware capable of delivering a meaningful leap in performance simply did not exist yet.

Now, as Valve prepares to expand its hardware ecosystem early next year with the Steam Frame headset, the new Steam Machine, and a redesigned Steam Controller, one major product remains absent from the lineup: a new Steam Deck. IGN spoke with Valve engineers in an extensive interview, and Pierre-Loup Griffais told IGN that it is still not the right time for a Steam Deck 2. However, he emphasized that Valve now has a solid concept of what the next-generation Deck should be.

“Obviously the Steam Deck’s not our focus today,” Griffais explained, “but the same things we have said in the past where we are really interested to work on what is next for Steam Deck… the thing we are making sure of is that it is a worthwhile enough performance upgrade to make sense as a standalone product. We are not interested in getting to a point where it is twenty or thirty or even fifty percent more performance at the same battery life. We want something a little bit more demarcated than that.”

Griffais went on to say that Valve has been “working back from silicon advancements and architectural improvements,” and that the company now has “a pretty good idea” of what Steam Deck 2 will be. The real obstacle is that no current system-on-chip offerings in the market are capable of delivering the next-gen jump Valve is looking for.

In other words, technological limitations, not lack of interest, are delaying the next hardware revision. Valve wants a major leap in performance without sacrificing battery life, thermals, or cost, and that requires a new generation of silicon that has not yet arrived.

Based on Valve’s comments, expectations now point toward a Steam Deck 2 launch sometime in late 2027. Such timing places it in potential competition with Sony’s upcoming next-gen PlayStation handheld, which early rumors suggest will deliver performance comparable to the base PlayStation 5 console.

If both devices launch close together, they may end up occupying similar price points and performance tiers, especially since both will likely be powered by custom AMD technology. However, with both systems still years away, the landscape could change significantly, and many details remain unconfirmed.

For now, the Steam Deck OLED remains Valve’s flagship handheld, and the focus appears to be expanding the wider Steam hardware family rather than pushing out a mid-generation refresh. Fans eager for a true next-gen Deck will need to wait a bit longer, but at least Valve now knows exactly what it wants to build when the time finally comes.

What features do you think are essential for a Steam Deck 2, and would you wait until 2027 for a major upgrade? Share your thoughts below.