Valve has tried a few hardware products in the past. The company, best known initially for bringing out thrilling video game experiences, found itself in a lucrative movement with the introduction of Steam. PC gaming has a few notable digital storefronts where you can find some of the latest and greatest games, but one of the biggest is Steam. This digital storefront continues to generate money, but that hasn’t stopped Valve from still kicking around some game projects and even hardware releases. For instance, one of their bigger hits as of late is the Steam Deck.
This Steam Deck is essentially a portable gaming PC. You can take your favorite PC games on the go, and so far, it’s opened up a new market. We’re finding several alternative PC gaming handhelds released into the marketplace. But still, the Steam Deck has proven popular, especially with games getting a special verification badge. Browsing Steam, you can easily spot games that can be run on the Steam Deck with this verification badge on their official Steam page. That eliminates some of the guesswork for some consumers who might be uncertain if their gaming PC handheld can properly run a specific game.
With that said, today, two new OLED models were revealed. These models offer faster downloads, better cooling, and a much more vibrant display. However, for those wondering if this is considered to be the official Steam Deck 2, Lawrence Yang can settle it. Lawrence Yang is the product designer for Valve and recently spoke with Bloomberg. Lawrence noted during their conversation that this is not the Steam Deck 2. However, that is what’s being worked on next.
The developer noted that his team will be working on a Steam Deck 2, which will feature a next-generation power upgrade. However, don’t anticipate the new handheld anytime soon. Instead, Valve expects this Steam Deck 2 release won’t be available for another two to potentially three years. At the very least, we know that the Steam Deck 2 is being worked on, and Valve is not abandoning the handheld gaming marketplace anytime soon.
For those of you who haven’t picked up a Valve Steam Deck yet, we do have a Before You Buy video coverage. It’s worth noting that this is the original Steam Deck and does not represent the OLED models that were just unveiled. But you can get our overall impressions of the portable handheld from the video embedded below.
