The more powerful Steam Deck won’t be released until at least 2025
The Steam Deck has been on the market for nearly two years. When juxtaposed with subsequent models like the ROG Ally, which boasts a more potent AMD chipset, its gaming performance appears significantly lagging. Running recent major game releases is quite an arduous task on the Deck. Consequently, numerous aficionados have been eagerly anticipating an upgraded iteration of the Steam Deck from Valve. However, Valve remains nonchalant about the clamor, recently indicating that a next-generation Steam Deck wouldn’t emerge for several years.
In responses to The Verge and CNBC, Valve conveyed their lack of urgency in unveiling a new Steam Deck. They anticipate such a launch to be slated for sometime later in 2025 or perhaps even later, contingent upon the emergence of more efficient hardware. They’re loath to bolster performance at the expense of battery longevity. Presently, Valve contends that the Steam Deck’s capabilities are sufficient to endure for several years. On the software front, they’re committed to incessantly assisting game developers in optimizing for the Steam Deck, ensuring the realization of its optimal performance.
Though a high-performance Steam Deck remains a distant prospect, there have been indications from Steam Deck about introducing a more compact and lighter variant, given the current model’s somewhat unwieldy nature. Indeed, the current trend encompasses numerous modifications to the Steam Deck, ranging from swapping out casings and buttons to even upgrading to higher-resolution screens. In the absence of new releases from Valve, enthusiasts are gravitating towards crafting a bespoke Steam Deck through DIY methods.
One of the paramount virtues of the current Steam Deck is its cost-effectiveness. A significant cohort of users opt to upgrade the SSD for expanded storage, which still culminates in a relatively economical expenditure. Should the Steam Deck bolster its performance and, as a corollary, its price, it might not resonate well with its target audience.
