‘Next-gen’ Steam Decks are in development, streaming service potentially in the future

The Steam Deck, Valve’s hybrid handheld gaming console, has seen significant success since the console launched back in February. We’re pretty big fans of it here at Polygon, with Chris Plante going so far as to call it his video game platform of choice with one of the greatest launch lineups ever. Players can look forward to even greater things from it in the future, as a recent interview with Valve suggests.

Weekly Famitsu published an interview featuring Valve developers regarding the Steam Deck’s release and reception. Greg Coomer, the designer of the Steam Deck was honest when asked about future support.

“Unless something major changes, there will be a next generation of Steam Deck products in the future,” Coomer said. “The theme, size and shape will change, and it might even become a streaming machine. Development of the Steam Deck will continue.”

Coomer elaborated on the reasons behind this decision, stating that, “One reason is that it is an extension of our core Steam platform. While the Steam Deck may be a different form of a computer, Steam can also serve many other purposes. […] and we will continue to work to satisfy our customers as much as possible.”

Pierre-Loup Griffais identified two main elements Valve wishes to improve in the Steam Deck’s future versions. They were battery life optimization. “We have already made improvements [to battery life] between the time of launch and now,” Griffais said. “We’re also constantly optimizing the operating system to reduce battery consumption when playing games that are not too demanding. It will also increase battery life. In any case, battery issues are at the top of our list of future improvements.”

Polygon has reached out to Valve for further comment, and we haven’t heard back by publication.