So far, every time Valve has spoken about the possibility of a Steam Deck 2, it has said that it is waiting for a true generational leap in performance, and that that has not yet happened. Following the launch of the Steam Machine, Valve engineer, Pierre Loup-Griffais, commented on the Steam Deck 2 in an interview with IGN, revealing, seemingly for the first time, that things are moving in the right direction for the Steam Deck 2, even if they're not quite there yet. According to the developer, the current crop of mobile CPUs are beginning to show promise in terms of performance, but efficiency is now becoming a bigger problem.

"I'd say we're closer than we were the last time we talked. We're definitely getting there," said Griffais, going on to explain that "I would say that the new chips that are coming out are still in power envelopes that are not quite the right segment that you'd want for a true handheld experience." Going a little deeper into it, he said that "I think a lot of them are more low-end laptop chips or playing in that sort of form factor that are then repurposed for handhelds and maybe not leading to, I guess the trade-off that we would've chosen in terms of power and better life and that and all that."

As revealed in previous rumors, it seems as though Valve will opt for off-the-shelf silicon for the Steam Deck 2, instead of putting in tons of engineering work to develop another semi-custom chip with AMD. This suggests that Valve will be looking for mainstream CPUs to have the correct combination of performance and efficiency, which CPUs like Intel's recent Arc G3 platform are starting to achieve, but haven't yet realized. Griffais did assure readers that "we're working towards our next gen for sure," and that Valve would be talking about the next-gen Steam Deck in the coming years, suggesting that it is still a way out—Valve will also likely not want to step in the same pricing trap as was the case with the Steam Machine, where launching in the midst of a DRAM crisis got the hardware labelled "dead on arrival" by many gamers. Given the ongoing crisis, it would not be surprising to see Valve drag its feet on a Steam Deck 2 until the supply and pricing issues have subsided.