Valve has revealed that a “true next-gen” model of its Steam Deck handheld will be “a few years” away, though the company is already looking to see what it can improve.
- READ MORE: The 8 best PC games you need to play in 2023
Speaking to Rock Paper Shotgun, Valve designer Lawrence Yang reflected on the success of the company’s handheld gaming PC, which celebrated its first anniversary last month.
The Steam Deck was a critical success when it launched in 2022, with NME awarding it four stars out of five in our review.
The handheld’s success has made Valve “even more excited to look closely at what can be improved,” according to Yang. However, Yang added that “a true next-gen Deck with a significant bump in horsepower wouldn’t be for a few years” – meaning that Steam Deck fans will have to wait a while for Valve’s next major upgrade.
Looking at the existing Steam Deck’s future, Valve engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais said it would be “hard to say” how it would hold up as future games will become more graphically demanding, and suggested it would depend on the game’s developers.
“I believe the Deck has the potential to be a solid target throughout the generation, but the work involved is trickier than the typical Deck UX tweaks that developers have had to do for games that already perform well,” shared Griffais.
