A new rumor suggests Valve’s next-generation Steam Deck could still be several years away. In a post on gaming forum NeoGAF, known hardware enthusiast and reliable hardware leaker KeplerL2 claimed that the Steam Deck 2 is currently planned for 2028.
The comment, made in a discussion about competing handheld PCs, offered no additional details or evidence to support the date.
A 2028 release date somewhat lines up with past claims of the device being “quite a while” away from happening. Valve has previously indicated that it does not plan to release a new version of the Steam Deck until a significant improvement in performance and efficiency is possible. When introducing the Steam Deck OLED in November 2023, Valve designer Lawrence Yang described the device as the “definitive first-generation Deck”. At the same time, he was said they were confident that in two or three years, there will be better technology to justify a successor to the first Steam Deck. Whether that
In January 2025, rumors picked up of a Steam Deck 2 utilizing AMD’s Ryzen Z2 processor. However, that was quickly shot down by Valve engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais who said that “there is (not) and will be no Z2 Steam Deck.”
For now, Valve continues to support the Steam Deck and its OLED revision, while competition in the handheld PC market intensifies from manufacturers such as ASUS and Lenovo.
The company has not announced any official release window for a Steam Deck 2. Even with the past reliability of the source, until anything is made official, take the claim with a grain of salt, especially when 2028 is still over two years away.
What do you think the Valve Steam Deck 2 will finally release? Let us know down below, and take the discussion further in the official Insider Gaming forums.
For more Insider Gaming, read about claims that many developers still don’t have Nintendo Switch 2 dev kits for their games. And don’t forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter.
Mike has been covering the gaming industry since 2012, and has reported on some of the largest events in the industry while also working as an investigative reporter. Outside of…
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