Steam Deck hasn’t even settled into gamers’ hands yet, and Valve has already teased its successor. In a recent interview with Edge Magazine, Valve co-founder Gabe Newell hinted at where a Steam Deck 2 could go, and VR is part of the conversation.
Newell framed the original Steam Deck as stage one: a handheld powerful enough to run your PC library on the go. The follow-up, he said, will be about what handheld gaming can do that a desktop rig can’t. His said:
“The first stage is for you to play the wonderful games that are out there right now. During the second round of revisions, we’ll be focusing more on: What are the advantages of mobile gaming over conventional desktop PC gaming?”
With Steam Deck 2, Valve wants to push portability into new territory. That includes battery-conscious horsepower that could, in theory, fuel a VR headset. “While we aren’t quite there, this is a good first step,” Newell added.
Gamers Want Premium, and They’re Paying for It
One thing that surprised Valve is that the most expensive Steam Deck, the $649 model with 512GB of storage and an anti-glare screen, has been the most popular among pre-orders. Newell admitted they didn’t expect demand to skew so heavily toward the high end.
“It’s essentially a request for a more expensive model with more horsepower or a few other features,” he states. And if that’s the signal Valve is listening, expect Deck 2 to lean into what premium buyers want.
Should Valve Even Be Talking About Deck 2 Yet?
The original Steam Deck has not even shipped in volume, and Valve is already hyping a sequel. On one hand, it feels premature. On the other, it’s a clear sign Valve isn’t treating this as a one-off experiment. The company is sending the message that it’s serious about handheld PCs and is already on the way to planning a roadmap.
The preorder data raises another eyebrow. Typically, you’d expect the “sweet spot” model (in this case, the $529 256GB version with a proper SSD) to dominate. Instead, it’s the flagship that’s topping charts. For less demanding games, SD cards are fine for expanding storage, but buyers seem to want the convenience and speed of a maxed-out deck from the start.
It also suggests something about the audience. Early adopters aren’t casuals looking for a budget-friendly Switch alternative — they’re PC gamers willing to pay extra for quality. If that trend holds, Steam Deck 2 might lean more toward premium hardware than Valve initially thought.
We’re still waiting to see how the first Steam Deck performs once it’s in more players’ hands, but Valve is already thinking ahead. A Steam Deck 2 with strong hardware, better battery capacity, and maybe even VR support is an ambitious idea and exactly what you’d expect from the company that turned PC game distribution on its head in the first place. For now, we’ll take it one Deck at a time.
