As the Steam Controller breaks cover, Valve say they're hard at work on the Steam Deck 2 and keeping current Decks in stock

"We're trying to make sure to keep options open"

In case you missed it, Valve confirmed the Steam Controller's price and release date yesterday. Naturally, as part of that reveal they've faced a bunch of questions about the other hardware they've got in the works, including the Steam Machine and the more distant next Steam Deck. As far as the latter's concerned, they still aren't saying much, but have at least confirmed they've busy working on both it and making sure current Decks don't keep going out of stock amid the ongoing RAM crisis.

First, the status of Steam Deck 2: The Deckpire Steams Back. "We're hard at work on it," Valve programmer Pierre-Loup Griffais told the Ian Games Network. "And obviously every step of the way, if you look at our hardware projects over the years, you can draw a straight line from the original Steam Controller and Steam Machine to Steam Deck, to everything that we're announcing and shipping this year. And we expect Steam Deck 2 will be a lot of the same where a lot of what we're doing here will be learnings that build up to it."

This follows on from Griffais telling the same site late last year that Valve are keen to make sure the next Decks is a "worthwhile enough performance upgrade" on its predecessor, with the implication being that's why they've not rushed into announcing a release window for it yet. With plenty of tech like the Controller and the Machine to push this year and RAMnarök complicating that, it also makes all the sense in the world for the company to take their time.

As for the memory shortage making the Decks currently on sale harder to get ahold of, Griffais said that's "something that [Valve are] working very hard on". "We're trying to make sure to keep options open and to work with as many different manufacturers as we can," he said of the company's wider efforts to navigate RAMnarök. "I think in general, that's something that we're doing throughout our hardware design and production phase where we're always cognizant of the fact that having a single source for a given part would put us downstream of potential shortages, and things like that in a way that affects the continuity of the supply and the price for end users."

"That being said," he added, "the conditions around memory are pretty global right now, so there's only so much that we can do. But for example, there was a similar condition during the COVID times where there's a microcontroller shortage and people couldn't really build anything that had small chips...because we had so many different options open in terms of putting different types of microcontrollers in there, we were able to navigate that and keep some supply in a climate where maybe some other players were not able to do that."

So, there's your quick 'Valve have released a thing' Deck update. If you're keen to learn more about what the Steam Controller's like ahead of its arrival on May 4th, check out James' Steam Controller review.