Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

Just as we started get mad at the panorama of aSteam Deck 2 , it now seems that gamers will have to hold off a lot longer for the handheld . According to a recent statement , Valve is not looking to release the newSteam Deckfor at least a couple more years . Will the console table be able to stay militant against its rivals ?

Pierre - Loup Griffais , the house decorator of Steam Deck and a repp for Valve , talk toThe Vergeand revealed some information about the futurity of the gaming handheld . While the company has programme to promote , it ’s wreak it good and does n’t see that happening until belated 2025 at the very least — but it could be even farsighted than that .

Steam Deck sitting on a pink background.

Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

“ It ’s significant to us that the Deck pop the question a fixed functioning fair game for developers , and that the message to customers is simple , where every Deck can play the same games . As such , changing the operation storey is not something we are acquire lightly , and we only want to do so when there is a meaning enough increase to be had , ” aver Griffais .

This sort of coming make common sense , but also makes it hard for the Steam Deck to keep up with some of the most demanding games . It can run these titles for now , but in two years , there will be game that it contend with — this is already true at higher preferences in certain titles , such asStarfield .

However , Valve ’s fear are n’t just focus around providing a uniform experience to the client . It ’s also about the cost of bring extra performance .

Griffais told The Verge : “ We also do n’t want more public presentation to number at a significant monetary value to magnate efficiency and electric battery life . I do n’t anticipate such a leap to be possible in the next couple of years , but we ’re still tight monitoring innovations in architectures and fabrication processes to see where thing are pass there . ”

Both of those concerns are legitimate — after all , a handheld personal computer necessitate to provide enough battery life to justify being a handheld . If you have to charge up all the time , it kind of defeats the purpose of that “ unplugged ” gambling experience . However , Valve has a grow list of challenger that already provide good carrying out . For example , theAsus ROG Ally with the Z1 Extremeblows Steam Deck out of the water . get ’s not talk about the Z1 version — that one ’s not doing so well . Lenovo ’s Legion Gocomes with the same AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip , so opportunity are it ’ll outwit Steam Deck ’s Zen 2 APU .

While it might take a while forSteam Deck 2to appear , we might still see a refresh along the lines of the Nintendo Switch OLED interlingual rendition . Valve could advance barrage fire life or equip the cabinet with a better display without needing to make any major change . But we now know that gamers will have to wait at least two year for a proper follow - up console to hit the food market .