Valve gave us the strongest wording yet that a Steam Deck 2 is actually real, although it's still clearly going to be some time away before there's enough of an upgrade.

The exact quote:

It is important to us, and we’ve tried to be really clear, we are not doing the yearly cadence. We’re not going to do a bump every year. There’s no reason to do that. And, honestly, from our perspective, that’s kind of not really fair to your customers to come out with something so soon that’s only incrementally better. So we really do want to wait for a generational leap in compute without sacrificing battery life before we ship the real second generation of Steam Deck. But it is something that we’re excited about and we’re working on.

  • astrsk@fedia.io
    148·
    2 months ago

    My biggest concern with SteamDeck was that it would become a 1-2 year upgrade cycle device. I don’t expect the hardware to last 7+ years like normal console lifecycles but I’m very glad to hear they’re being patient and aggressively supporting the software side.

    • KeefChief13@lemmy.world
      682·
      2 months ago

      It’s kind of just becoming an indie or old game portable pc to me. Don’t personally have much interest in playing modern graphically demanding titles on it.

      • LucidNightmare@lemm.ee
        161·
        2 months ago

        I’m the same. I play retro and indie titles on the Deck, and more modern and demanding games on the desktop.

      • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.de
        8·
        2 months ago

        I was really surprised how well Hellblade 2 ran on mine. And supposedly Until Dawn also runs well now. When you can live with 30fps I suspect that well crafted games will be playable for a few more years.

      • Hagdos@lemmy.world
        7·
        2 months ago

        Was it ever intended or fit for that? It’s 2.5 years old, where modern games 2.5 years ago that much less demanding than modern games today?

        • Prinz Kasper@feddit.org
          6·
          2 months ago

          2.5 years ago there were a lot more games still targeting last gen consoles as their minimum baseline. Newer games that are current gen consoles only tend to fare a lot worse on steam deck.

        • KeefChief13@lemmy.world
          5·
          2 months ago

          I think the goal was to be able to physically run some version of modern AAA titles when it came out. Although generally, those titles would be downgraded graphically and run at a low frame rate, making it a less than ideal situation for those with alternative options.

      • deafboy@lemmy.world
        3·
        2 months ago

        It’s an excellent thin client as well. I’ve played the second half of death stranding through the free tier of Geforce Now.

    • leopold@lemmy.kde.social
      45·
      2 months ago

      I dunno, I expect the Deck to last far longer than the average console if anything. It’s a PC, so the games are pretty much guaranteed to keep coming for decades to come, as they have for decades past.

      The hardware will fall behind, so I think the point where the newest Triple A games won’t be playable will come within a few years, but I bet whatever visual novels or pixelated indie games release in 2035 will still run just fine on it.

      Plus, it’s designed to be repairable, unlike most consoles. And even if Valve stops maintaining SteamOS for the Steam Deck, you’ll still be able to install other distros, so software support isn’t something I’m very concerned about either.

      • figjam@midwest.socialEnglish
        3·
        2 months ago

        Two thoughts.

        1. Space marine 2 didn’t work well so I’m assuming that spankin new games will be hit or miss from here on out.
        2. AAA games have sucked lately. ive played so many good games on my deck that I may have missed on a larger system.
    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
      18·
      2 months ago

      Shoot. My back log on games is so big, I can be happy with this one for another 5 years before I’d need something with more power.

    • Defaced@lemmy.world
      161·
      2 months ago

      There are a ton of PC gamers who think the only way to play a video game is 1440p 60-144fps and anything below that is unplayable. The reality is the steam deck is a 720p 30fps handheld device that can occasionally make it to 60fps if pushed far enough.

      IMHO a device that can run a game like God of war Ragnarok at 30fps in handheld mode and still play fine when docked is succeeding on the performance front in several aspects. In comparison, the switch version of Wolfenstein the new Colossus had to remove entire sets of geometry to even hit 30fps where the deck can hit that easily with the same settings without removing geometry and using AMD FSR. I think the deck has at least 3 more years in it before we even start to see any needed upgrades at that performance. Only time will tell.

      • MXX53@programming.dev
        9·
        2 months ago

        The steamdeck seriously changed my perspective of what power I need for a computer and convinced me that I can continue to run my 1080ti for at least a few more years.

        • weker01@sh.itjust.works
          5·
          2 months ago

          1080’ties really were legendary cards. Back then I only had a 1060ti as my prior card broke unexpectedly and that was all the money I could spare.

          • MXX53@programming.dev
            2·
            2 months ago

            Completely agree! When this bad boy gets retired it is getting disassembled and placed in a shadow box for display.

      • daellat@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 months ago

        Yes but that 1440p 144hz is on a 27 inch display on a stationary computer. Why do you think people that prefer that are mutually exclusive with people that are fine with less for a mobile device with a 7 inch display and a battery?

    • xChronoZerox@lemmy.today
      121·
      2 months ago

      It 100% could, everyone thinks they need to be able to generate kratos’ abs, Cloud’s spikes and Keanu…but they don’t. (Removed an extra an)

      • bitwolf@lemmy.one
        7·
        2 months ago

        Agreed. FSR 3 really is amazing and I’d gladly use that to pull a few more years of playing my favorite games on 720p low.

        Upscalers are great for portables I just hope it’s not used to excuse poor optimization.

        That said I only play fps on my desktop, the steam deck opens up an entirely different class of games for me.

    • secret300@lemmy.sdf.org
      4·
      2 months ago

      Honestly can’t see that happening. I think valve will want each upgrade to be significant enough you can feel it