Although many of us anticipated an early 2026 release for the Steam Machine, that window has now come and gone. All isn’t lost, as Valve is still working to finalize plans, but you have to wonder: What’s up with the next iteration of the Steam Deck? According to programmer Pierre-Loup Griffais, it exists.
Griffais told IGN that the company isn’t content with an iterative upgrade. While Valve is “hard at work” on the Steam Deck 2, he asserted that it could still be a while before it can be a justifiable upgrade to the original handheld.
“If you look at our hardware projects over the years, you can draw a straight line from the original Steam Controller and Steam Machine to Steam Deck, to everything that we’re announcing and shipping this year. And we expect Steam Deck 2 will be a lot of the same, where a lot of what we’re doing here will be learnings that build up to it.”
Well, that could mean better battery life from a machine that’s infamous for running out on you after a session of play. However, as designer Lawrence Yang said in 2024, the company isn’t keen on yearly upgrades for the device, instead waiting for a “generational leap in compute without sacrificing battery life.”
So while the Steam Deck 2 is definitely a thing, it probably doesn’t have the tech to be a genuine upgrade over the Steam Deck. It’s always better to release a console that does the job better than the ones that came before it, and we’re happy to be a little patient. On the bright side, at least the Steam Controller has a release date of May 4th and retails for $99. Check out the official overview video from Valve here.
