Lawrence Yang

Prior to the Steam Deck’s launch, Valve said that it intended to sell “millions” of units of the handheld device, and it certainly looks like the company is hitting those targets.

It’s a matter of when we’ll see the Steam Deck 2, not if we’ll see it. Valve has talked publicly multiple times about its plans for a next-gen Steam Deck, which shouldn’t come as a surprise given that the original is easily the best handheld gaming PC you can buy.

The Valve Steam Deck OLED is the latest thing in portable gaming, but it isn't all that much of an upgrade over the original Steam Deck. Sure, it has a new battery and a better display thanks to the use of OLED technology, but on the inside, it's essentially the same as the model that's been on sale for a while now. However, Valve says that it has plans for a new model that will be a bigger upgrade compared to what gamers are used to.

With the Steam Deck OLED due to release on November 16, it’s plainly obvious what Valve’s next big hardware frontier is, but this new handheld is just a refresh. What might be coming after it? On that front, Valve suggests that the Steam Deck 2 is pretty far out.

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In case there was any doubt (and there really shouldn't be at this point), the Steam Deck is a major hit. Speaking to The Verge, designers Lawrence Yang and Pierre-Loup Griffais said Valve's handheld gaming PC has now sold «multiple millions» of units.

Yesterday, Valve revealed an OLED iteration of its Steam Deck handheld. More Steam Deck 1.5 than Steam Deck 2, the new Deck intends to further increase the momentum of the 2022 system, which has been a very strong seller for the Half-Life creator. 

Where the hell is SteamOS? That was one of the key questions I wanted answered when I sat down with Valve's Lawrence Yang and Yazan Aldehayyat, two of the longest serving members of the Steam Deck team. As always, the answer is «soon» but interestingly Valve is looking to make it available to other handhelds first, before a wider PC and laptop launch.

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Valve revealed the first major update to its handheld gaming device on Thursday when it announced the , an upgraded version of the original handheld that launched in 2022.

If you have anything like my tinkering soul, the first thing to occur to you the instant you heard Valve was making a Steam Deck OLED was about whether you'd be able to buy the screen from iFixit—in the same way you can buy the top LCD Steam Deck panel right now—and drop it into an original Deck. 

Valve has reiterated that its next generation Steam Deck handheld is still a few years away, despite today’s announcement of a new OLED model.

Valve has announced a new OLED version of the Steam Deck.

With Steam Deck OLED now in the spotlight, Valve reassures gamers that dual-boot support and SteamOS improvements are still "very high on the list," and the development team will make some significant changes to the operating system in the next year.

The Steam Deck OLED isn’t the sequel to the original Steam Deck; it’s the predecessor improved to its full potential. The Steam Deck 2 — for lack of a better name — will likely appear in two to three years, when Valve feels it can use nascent hardware to produce a “generational leap” in performance. But it’s unlikely Valve will stop here. After talking with members of the Steam Deck team, it sounds as if the next few years of Steam Deck are only the beginning.

Now, I know you may be feeling a little glum at the announcement of the new Steam Deck OLED. You know your little ol' LCD Steam Deck can still play the same games at the same speeds as the shiny new Valve thing, but it's taken a little shine off your handheld PC, right?

Valve only just announced the Steam Deck OLED, but the company is already teasing a much more substantial upgrade to its popular handheld.

By Jay Peters, a news editor who writes about technology, video games, and virtual worlds. He’s submitted several accepted emoji proposals to the Unicode Consortium.

By Sean Hollister, a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.

Valve has launched its much-awaited SteamVR 2.0 update, following a one-month beta testing period in September. While it's unclear whether the company is laying the groundwork for a new virtual reality headset, the update brings a complete overhaul to the user interface, in a way that matches the current Steam Big Picture mode. The store prioritises new and major VR releases at the top, in addition to making it easy to navigate through a consistent experience across the desktop app, the Steam Deck, and other devices. The update was originally supposed to drop in 2020.

Valve has said that it wants to make a Steam Deck 2 but doesn't see it launching «in the next couple of years».

Valve doesn’t expect to release a true Steam Deck successor “in the next couple of years”.

By Sean Hollister, a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.