Steam Deck 2: Valve Steam Deck designer discusses possibility of rumoured AMD Ryzen Z2 refresh

Rumours of Valve releasing new hardware have begun circulating in the last month or so, in part driven by database leaks. To recap, details about the so-called Steam Controller 2 surfaced in late November. Additionally, fresh information about Valve's long-rumoured 'Deckard' virtual reality (VR) headset appeared, which was swiftly followed up by a leak about a gaming device codenamed 'Fremont'.

With all that in mind, VideoCardz published a piece earlier today in which it boldly claimed that AMD 'confirms Valve Steam Deck update' as part of introducing the Ryzen Z2 series. In response, various outlets responded by recirculating the news, despite there being no explicit mention of a new Steam Deck in the leaked material VideoCardz published online. Instead, the Steam Deck was referred to in the same breath as the Legion Go and ROG Ally, which both rely on older Ryzen Z1 and Ryzen Z1 Extreme APUs.

Pierre-Loup Griffais, a senior player in the design of the Steam Deck, has now clarified Valve's position though. Unequivocally, Griffais confirmed that 'there is and will be no Z2 Steam Deck', effectively ending the rumours in their tracks.

Officially, Valve has only ever referred to releasing a next-generation Steam Deck in 'a few years'. Given that the Steam Deck keeps pace with the Radeon 890M in benchmarks, the Ryzen Z2 series was unlikely to power a device that Valve has earmarked as offering a 'with a significant bump in horsepower'.

In the meantime, there has been concrete evidence to suggest that a SteamOS-powered Legion Go gaming handheld is almost upon us. To that end, Lenovo has strongly hinted that said device will arrive later this week at CES 2025, but not as a direct successor to the original Legion Go gaming handheld that Lenovo released last year (curr. $619.99 on Amazon). Instead, it may arrive as a cheaper alternative with fixed controllers and a lower price point, with lower performance targets to match.