[UPDATE - April 2, 2026] According to AMD leaker Kepler_L2, Valve is targeting a 2028 launch window for the Steam Deck 2. However, the ongoing RAM and NAND crisis could delay the product launch beyond 2028.
[ORIGINAL STORY] It's been two years since Valve introduced the Steam Deck OLED, a revision of the handheld gaming device originally released on the market in February 2022. Back then, fans of the device had already been clamoring for a proper, more powerful new iteration, but Valve had just said that a Steam Deck 2 wouldn't be released until 2025 or 2026 because the technology they were looking for was simply not yet available.
The Steam hardware family is officially set to expand early next year with the launch of the Frame headset, the new Steam Machine, and the new Steam Controller; however, there's no new Deck in sight yet. IGN asked Valve once again, and Software Engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais reiterated that it still isn't time yet, although the company now has a good idea of what it's going to be.
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. We're not interested in getting to a point where it's 20 or 30 or even 50% more performance at the same battery life. We want something a little bit more demarcated than that. So we've been working back from silicon advancements and architectural improvements, and 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.
It sounds like we'll have to wait until the latter half of 2027, in all likelihood, which could put the new Deck in direct competition with the PlayStation handheld that Sony is working on. According to rumors, it's expected to offer a performance level similar to the base PlayStation 5 console.
Given that both devices will be powered by AMD technology, they could end up with similar performance if they are released near each other at a comparable price. Of course, there are too many unknowns at this point, which is expected given that these devices are a couple of years away. Still, keep following Wccftech to remain updated on the latest leaks, rumors, and news.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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