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 can be potential within the subsequent few years.
On the subject of new gaming {hardware}, firms like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are typically fairly secretive till it’s close to time for launch. That’s not the case with Valve, nonetheless. The Steam Deck’s builders haven’t been afraid to speak a few 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 might arrive. Based on the developer, that day could not come till late 2025 or past.
The explanation why the following technology of the Steam Deck could also be years away seems to largely be attributable to battery life issues. Griffais desires to see a bounce in efficiency that doesn’t considerably drain the battery.
In a quote supplied to the outlet, Graffais explains:
It’s vital to us that the Deck gives a hard and fast efficiency goal for builders, and that the message to clients is straightforward, the place each Deck can play the identical video games. As such, altering the efficiency stage just isn’t one thing we’re taking calmly, and we solely need to accomplish that when there’s a important sufficient enhance 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 potential 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 brief 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 prime precedence for the following Steam Deck.
Even when a Steam Deck 2 is years away, that doesn’t essentially imply that Valve gained’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.
