Valve Believes “The Future for Hardware is Bright” for Steam Deck and SteamVR

On their development blog, Steamworks, Valve recently shared an update detailing their achievements over the past year. Alongside the revelry of fresh platform features for Steam, they also discussed progress in their hardware and software ventures.

According to recent updates, Valve appears optimistic about the future of their hardware, such as the Steam Deck, and software like SteamVR and SteamOS, which is based on Linux. This optimism arises from a year of dedicated development, particularly in making SteamOS compatible across different operating systems.

Valve’s investments in Linux have proven fruitful due in large part to their work on the Proton software layer, which facilitates compatibility between games primarily designed for Windows and Linux. In simpler terms, Proton makes it possible for these games to run smoothly on Linux, as well as SteamOS and the Steam Deck, without developers needing to make special adjustments.

Based on the article, the Deck Compatibility program has categorized approximately 17,000 games from Steam as either “Playable” or “Verified” for the Steam Deck, a popular handheld gaming system. Notably, an impressive 330 million hours of gameplay on Steam in the year 2024 were attributed to this device.

In simpler terms, Valve stated that the future for their hardware looks promising, as products like Steam Deck, SteamOS, and SteamVR are providing significant value to both players and developers. These innovations are based on a decade’s worth of investments in user interfaces, Linux compatibility, input support, custom processors, motion tracking technology, display quality, battery life, and other key components.

All game developers creating PC titles reap the rewards from these investments, enriching the gaming experience for players. Now, PC games can be enjoyed in a multitude of unique settings. The hardware teams at Valve are thrilled to see Steam becoming a part of everyday life – whether it’s in the living room, at an airport, or even the backyard – as customers choose where they want to take their collection of PC games.

Valve’s endeavor to create SteamOS as an operating system compatible with various hardware has proven fruitful. This year, they unveiled their partnership with Lenovo, planning to launch certain models of the Lenovo Legion Go S equipped with SteamOS.

Despite achieving significant success in the past year, Valve has consistently shown no immediate plans to release a successor to the Steam Deck. The latest indication of this stance was expressed in January, shortly after AMD revealed its new processors. These processors could potentially enhance the handheld gaming PC format, but Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais quickly dismissed any speculation about a new Steam Deck utilizing AMD’s Z2 chip.

Griffais posted on social media that there will be no Z2 Steam Deck. It appears he was interpreting the slide as indicating that the series is intended for similar products, rather than revealing any specific announcements.

In October, Lawrence Yang, a designer at Valve, shared that the company has no immediate plans to introduce a new version of the Steam Deck. He mentioned that they are not planning for yearly updates or iterations of the Steam Deck. Instead, a potential Steam Deck 2 would only be developed if there’s a significant need for improved performance and battery life – essentially requiring a “generational leap” in terms of these aspects.

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2025-03-14 15:11