Valve confirms that it's 'hard at work' on the Steam Deck 2

With Valve launching its new Steam Controller, its first hardware release for 2026, many are naturally wondering about the status of the upcoming Steam Machine and the inevitable Steam Deck 2 gaming handheld. As part of the new controller's debut, IGN sat down with Valve programmer Pierre-Loup Griffais to ask about the current status of the handheld sequel.

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"We're hard at work on it," Griffais replied, confirming that the company is still very much all in on developing the highly anticipated Steam Deck 2. Although we didn't get any new information or details on hardware specs, a potential launch window, or any new features for the handheld, the good news is that Valve is treating its recent hardware push as a single ecosystem, where each device informs the others.

"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," Griffais adds. "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."

As far as unofficial Steam Deck 2 information goes, the latest word from industry insiders and known leakers is that Valve is targeting a 2028 launch window for the handheld. In addition, the latest rumors suggest Valve is opting for an off-the-shelf AMD SoC for the device, such as the Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip found in several popular Windows-based handhelds.

However, Valve has stated that it won't release a Steam Deck 2 unless it can deliver a substantial performance improvement over the original. On that note, Valve has said that even a 50% performance increase with the same power profile wouldn't be enough, so odds are it's probably targeting something like double the performance or more.

Of course, with the current memory and storage crisis, whatever plans are in place for the Steam Deck 2 will likely change and evolve in the months and years ahead.