Valve’s Steam Deck gaming laptop is nearing the end of its first year, which has, by and large, been clearly successful. This means that the company will be releasing more Steam Decks in the future and they are currently looking to upgrade the hardware for “Steam Deck 2”.
In an interview with the edge Valve engineers Lawrence Yang and Pierre-Loup told Griffais about some of the critical points they’re working on for the company’s laptop.
Quieter fans
The new Steam Deck model will have a much quieter fan. It seems a welcome thing as a frequent criticism among users is that the computer gets too noisy during the most demanding work. Currently, Valve uses fan components from two different suppliers, Huaying and Delta, with the Delta variant being accused of being louder.
The new Steam controller may become relevant
In 2015, Valve released its own game console. The Steam console, which is specifically designed to work with both typical console genres such as platform and combat as well as typical PC genres such as strategy and first-person shooter. The console received mixed reception and went out of production in 2019, but now Valve says they’re interested in making a new Steam console in the future. However, there are no specific plans.
“I think we should probably explore that because it’s something we wanted to do as well,” Lawrence Yang said in an interview with The Verge.
Audio mixers are on their way to the Steam Deck
The Valve software team is currently working on a sound mixer for the Steam Deck so that the volume can be set separately for different programs at the same time. A function available on Windows, for example. It is said that a new audio mixer will appear in the near future.
Mobile games may be coming to Steam and the Steam Deck
According to Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais, mobile game developers have expressed interest in publishing their games directly to Steam and the Steam Deck. Something Valve should be open to as long as the games that can only be played with touch screens are clearly defined. However, the time when mobile games can start appearing on Steam is unknown.
Steam Deck 2 will have a better screen and battery
Valve says that for the next Steam Deck, the company wants to improve both the display as well as the system’s battery life. However, the company is not yet ready to reveal the exact screen and battery type. However, Valve engineers say they don’t see it as an issue to improve Steam Deck performance, even though AMD is close to releasing updates to its RDNA 3 mobile graphics. Instead, keeping users on a similar hardware level is seen as more valuable because it’s a great asset to developers.
Read also: Problems with EA games on the Steam Deck
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