Steam Deck’s next generation could become a ‘streaming machine’ but Valve says battery improvement is a priority

Valve is not entirely secretive about its plans for the future of the Steam Deck ecosystem. The company says it is prioritizing the improvement of battery life for the next generation of the handheld gaming PC, as well as other upgrades like supporting content streaming.

Valve recently released a digital Steam Deck booklet, where the company confirmed the current gaming hardware would not be the last of its kind. And in a recent interview with Weekly Famitsu (translated by VGC), Valve further confirmed plans to continue the development of the next-generation Steam Deck.

When asked if PC gamers can expect to see more of Steam Deck in the future, designer Greg Coomer said a new generation of products is in the pipeline “unless something major changes.” It lines up with what Valve stated in the above-mentioned booklet, noting that the current Steam Deck “represents the first in a new category of Steam handheld gaming PCs.”

But Coomer noted that PC gamers should expect several aspects of the next-gen Steam Deck to change. “The theme, size, and shape will change, and it might even become a streaming machine,” he added.

Coomer might be referring to the ability to stream media content, which would be a nice addition to give Steam Deck more purposes apart from gaming. And it is worth noting that the current model already supports Xbox Cloud Gaming through Microsoft Edge.

In the same interview, Steam Deck developer Pierre-Loup Griffais said Valve’s existing handheld gaming PC is doing well in terms of functionality and compatibility. But if there is one thing they plan to significantly improve, it would be the hardware’s battery life.

Griffais noted that they already released updates to improve the current Steam Deck’s battery life. Since the device entered the market, Valve released updates to optimize SteamOS and added an option to run games at 40Hz refresh rate for battery efficiency.

Valve intends to continue working on improving the Steam Deck battery life even for future models. “Battery issues are at the top of our list of future improvements,” the developer said.

The roadmap for Steam Deck’s future appears to be taking shape already. But it is still unknown how long the current generation of Steam Deck will remain in the market.

Photo by Edgar Almeida on Unsplash