When the Steam Deck debuted in February, we referred to as it our new favourite console. The enchantment is straightforward to know: What if the video games in your Steam library have been playable on the go, through a handheld system with the processing energy of a gaming PC? Valve has since pushed greater than 90 updates for the Steam Deck, fixing bugs and improving the participant expertise. The actual query, now, is what future updates Steam Deck homeowners can anticipate.
In a current interview with The Verge, Steam Deck designers Lawrence Yang and Pierre-Loup Griffais went into element on the options they’re prioritizing, together with what a second-gen Steam Deck would possibly seem like — noting that they’d focus on upgrading the screen and battery life.
Valve has referred to as the Steam Deck a “multi-generational product,” saying that it plans to “build new versions to be even more open and capable than the first version of Steam Deck has been.” Yang and Griffais advised The Verge that improving the screen and battery life are priorities in future {hardware} revisions.
As for potential energy upgrades, Griffais pointed to the advantages of sustaining a constant goal for builders, suggesting that at the very least the next model of the Steam Deck gained’t supply improved efficiency. “I think we’ll opt to keep the one performance level for a little bit longer, and only look at changing the performance level when there is a significant gain to be had,” he mentioned.
Steam Deck updates at present within the works fall into two classes, in line with Yang: “things we want to fix, and things we still want to make.”
Right now, the Steam Deck’s battery is tough to entry. In the present design, it’s glued. Valve is already working on “a change to the geometry of the adhesive, making the battery easier to loosen,” Yang mentioned. As batteries have a tendency to wear down extra shortly when in comparison with different {hardware} parts, making the battery simpler to entry and substitute would be a welcome replace.
Additionally, Valve is working on a characteristic to regulate the audio combine between varied apps, which would enable gamers to, say, flip down a recreation’s quantity to make it simpler to listen to mates on Discord. Valve would be all for including cellular video games to the Deck, however Griffais and Yang famous that it would be necessary to speak to gamers that these video games are touchscreen-only experiences.
Now that Valve has had some success on the {hardware} entrance, what a couple of follow-up to the distinctive, however sadly discontinued, Steam Controller? “We want to make it happen,” Yang advised The Verge, however he added that the corporate’s present focus is on the Deck.
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