Valve interested in making an upgraded Steam Deck in the future

The Steam Deck may not be abandoned like the ill-fated Steam Machines or Steam Controller--Valve could make new successors to its handheld-PC hybrid.

Valve is open to the possibility of making new Steam Decks with better specs and upgrades in the future, not unlike the jump from a 3DS to a Switch. The system's future depends on one thing: Sales. If the Steam Deck sells enough units and garners enough demand, then Valve might continue making new models similar to its bold vision for VR.

"We look at this as just a new category of device in the PC space. And assuming that customers agree with us that this is a good idea, we expect not only to follow up in the future with more iterations ourselves, but also for other manufacturers to want to participate in the space," hardware designer Greg Coomer tells IGN.

The Steam Deck is a pure evolution of everything Valve has learned from hardware manufacturing to date. Everything from VR motion tracking to Steam controller inputs and of course OS development has manifested into the Steam Deck, alongside a customized SoC using AMD's latest Zen 2 and RDNA 2 architectures.

The system has yet to be tested or used by mass market consumers but the handheld has sold out extremely quickly thanks to its attractive $399 price point.

Steam Deck news

• Steam Deck's suspend and resume feature was a top priority for Valve
• Steam Deck reservations are now open to all Steam users
• Steam Deck should run every Steam game at launch
• Scalpers selling Steam Deck reservations for up to $5,000 on eBay
• Valve's $399 Steamdeck handheld: a portable PC that plays Steam games
• Steam Deck uses an M.2 2230 SSD that's 'not intended for replacement'
• New Steam Deck 512GB pre-orders won't ship until Q3 2022
• Steam Deck can handle all Steam games performance-wise, even new ones