No yearly refreshes for Steam Deck as Valve reveals it's waiting for "generational" CPU leaps

Forward-looking: Valve is making it clear that they're not willing successful releasing yearly updates pinch only insignificant upgrades for its handhelds. For nan Steam Deck follow-up, they person thing overmuch bigger successful mind: a "generational leap" successful capacity without sacrificing artillery life.

In a caller interview, Valve's Lawrence nan rejected nan thought of bumping specs annually for illustration immoderate competitors. He said nan institution has nary plans to merchandise caller versions of nan aforesaid console each year, arsenic they don't spot a logic to do so. nan based on that rushing retired predominant refreshes pinch only flimsy improvements is "unfair" to consumers who precocious purchased nan erstwhile model.

Instead of this benignant of insignificant yearly tune-up, Valve intends to clasp disconnected until location is simply a genuine generational jump successful powerfulness earlier releasing nan Steam Deck 2, according to Yang. He confirmed they purpose to hold for a important compute upgrade that doesn't discuss artillery life earlier shipping a existent 2nd generation.

The original Steam Deck launched backmost successful February 2022, powered by nan AMD Zen 2 4c/8t CPU. While it did person an upgrade November 2023 successful nan shape of an OLED version, nan improvements were mostly constricted to nan show and battery.

That's not to opportunity that Valve is resting connected its laurels, waiting for nan adjacent awesome mobile APU merchandise from AMD/Intel. In a abstracted question and reply pinch Press Start, nan teased that activity connected a Steam Deck sequel is officially underway and that they will use "learnings" from nan original model.

As for erstwhile this generational leap will really arrive, nan timing remains uncertain, but location are immoderate imaginable clues connected nan horizon. AMD's all-new Zen 5 CPU architecture and RDNA 3.5 GPU silicon are expected to debut successful upcoming gaming handhelds soon. With those chips now available, anticipation is building for nan Ryzen Z2 series.

Valve's ambitions widen beyond hardware, though. The institution is taking steps to heighten nan wide gaming acquisition for Deck owners and perchance nan broader PC gaming community. For instance, nan Arch Linux team precocious announced a collaboration pinch Valve to streamline nan Arch Linux distribution that powers SteamOS.

Additionally, Valve seems willing successful expanding nan scope of SteamOS to garner much developer support, pinch hints suggesting that a wide SteamOS distribution merchandise could beryllium in nan works.