Valve's Steam Deck 2 is "a few years away"

The one-year-old Steam Deck runs an AMD Zen 2 4-core/8-thread 2.4 GHz CPU, 16 GB DDR5 RAM, and an AMD RDNA 2 GPU. The specs are comparable to an entry-level gaming laptop which can run most AAA titles at medium settings. The best part is that Valve is actively cataloging games and verifying if the Steam Deck can run them properly, with over 10,000 titles rated as "Steam Deck Verified."

The Steam Deck is much more like a PC than a console and it will take some time to have the perfect balance of power and efficiency. Valve has not shared how long the current generation was in development before it was announced in 2021, but it should take at least three to five years to go from conceptual stage to the first production model and that's if everything goes well. The actual process could have taken Valve longer.

Ultimately, Valve will want to see more returns from the current Steam Deck model first before it starts any significant work on a follow-up. The good news is that the current-generation model has already sold more than a million units since last year. It should continue selling well as stock availability of the Steam Deck improves.

While the next-generation console is years away, Steam may opt for a mid-generation update to spruce up the console with some incremental hardware changes, like a bigger battery or a sleeker design.