In a recent interview with IGN, Valve shared new details on the Steam Deck 2. While it is working hard on the device, it is also mitigating the RAM shortages impacting its products as best as it can.
The Steam Deck 2 might come sooner than we think. In a new interview with IGN, Valve engineer Steve Cardinali and programmer Pierre-Loup Griffais gave insight on how work on Gaben’s next handheld device is progressing: “We’re hard at work on it. And obviously every step of the way, if you look at our harder projects over the years, you can draw a straight line from the original Steam Controller and Steam Machines to the Steam Deck to everything that we’re announcing and shipping this year. And we expect the Steam Deck to be a lot of the same where a lot of what we’re doing here will be learnings that build up to it.”
Speaking of the Steam Deck, it too is a victim of the ongoing RAM shortages. As of the time of writing, it is still unavailable for purchase. The Steam Machine and the Steam Frame, Valve’s next Steam Hardware releases, are also impacted, but measures are being taken to mitigate this issue: “We’re trying to make sure to keep options open and to work with as many different manufacturers as we can.”
Griffais continues: “I think in general, that’s something that we’re doing throughout our hardware design and production phase where we’re always cognizant of the fact that having a single source for a given part would put us downstream of potential shortages, and things like that in a way that affects the continuity of the supply and the price for end users.” The Steam Controller is the only product within Valve’s Steam Hardware line to have made it out unscathed, as it has been confirmed to release on May 4th.
The last time Valve mentioned the Steam Deck 2 was during a 2025 interview with IGN. When asked if there were any plans to upgrade the current Steam Deck, Griffais replied: “Obviously the Steam Deck’s not our focus today, but the same things we’ve said in the past where we’re really interested to work on what’s next for Steam Deck… the thing we’re making sure of is that it’s a worthwhile enough performance upgrade to make sense as a standalone product.”
He also explained that if Valve is to make this device, it has to represent a substantial improvement over its predecessor as the company is seeking more than a simple 50% increase in performance at the same battery life. To Valve, a worthy successor should feel next-gen: “I think we have a pretty good idea of what the next version of Steam Deck is going to be, but right now there’s no offerings in that landscape, in the SOC landscape, that we think would truly be a next-gen performance Steam Deck.”