Valve Confirms Steam Deck 2 Plans in New Booklet
Valve recently partnered with Komodo to bring the Steam Deck to four new regions: Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Steam itself hasn’t historically been popular or easily accessible in these areas, so in anticipation of the Steam Deck’s introduction, Valve wrote a colorful booklet to explain its company’s philosophy and show off its console’s features. The unnamed 50-page booklet dives into Valve’s history, the process by which it developed the Steam Deck, and a few of its most popular titles—as well as its new-ish console’s future.
On a page titled “The Future: more Steam Decks, more SteamOS,” the booklet explicitly calls the Steam Deck “ a multi-generational product line.” Later on, the page implores readers to share what they’d like to see in a future version of the console. “We will learn from the Steam community about new uses for our hardware that we haven’t thought of yet, and we will build new versions to be even more open and capable than the first version of Steam Deck has been,” the English version of the booklet reads.
The same page confirms that the evolution of SteamOS is ongoing, with new features and improved game compatibility to come. This will include a generic version of the SteamOS installer, which will allow users to enjoy the Steam Deck’s operating system on PC without the need for third-party intervention. Developers will also use the compatibility work that went into the Steam Deck to make Steam gaming possible on other platforms, like Google’s ChromeOS.
It might be a bit tough for some people to get excited about the Steam Deck’s second iteration, given the first is still relatively challenging to obtain. Though Valve has certainly exceeded its original fulfillment obligations—many buyers have gotten their units a fiscal quarter or two earlier than promised, and new buyers need “only” wait one quarter to receive their consoles—three months is still a hefty wait time. After all, the Steam Deck isn’t something you can just pick up at the store, and based on Valve’s previous hardware releases, this is unlikely to ever be the case.