Steam Controller’s release is imminent, but don’t hold out hope for a Steam Deck 2 any time soon

Any time Valve announces something, people pay attention. Today, the company revealed the Steam Controller is launching soon. Like, super soon, as in next week.

Even more awesome Valve hardware is on the way down the line, including the Steam Frame VR headset and hugely anticipated Steam Machine PC/console hybrid. For me, though, I’m most excited to hear about advancements to the Steam Deck, which is one of my favorite pieces of tech ever made.

Unfortunately for myself and other Steam Deck enjoyers, it doesn’t sound like a sequel is coming any time soon. The OG Steam Deck launched in 2022 and the OLED version launched in 2023, but it sounds like a potential Steam Deck 2 is a long ways off, according to a new interview with Valve programmer Pierre-Loup Griffais.

“We’re hard at work on it,” Griffais said to IGN. “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.”

So, it’s been over four years since the original Steam Deck launched now, and it appears there’s no true concrete timing for when the next more advanced one will launch. That’s a bummer since the Steam Deck is far from a perfect machine, but I trust Valve, especially since Griffais says it’s largely due to tech advancements.

“We’re not interested in getting to a point where it’s 20 or 30 or even 50 percent more performance at the same battery life,” Griffais told us last year. “We want something a little bit more demarcated than that. So we’ve been working back from silicon advancements and architectural improvements, and I think we have a pretty good idea of what the next version of Steam Deck is going to be, but right now there’s no offerings in that landscape, in the SoC [System on a Chip] landscape, that we think would truly be a next-gen performance Steam Deck.”

Basically, Valve knows what the Steam Deck 2 (or whatever it’s called) looks like, but the technology it’s envisioning for it isn’t quite there yet. And that’s fine, because this is one project I’m willing to wait as long as it takes for.

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PlayStation exclusive Saros is coming soon, and not long is left before you can dive in and enjoy the content. The exact release date and time will differ based on which edition you’ve purchased. Nevertheless, this guide has you covered regarding the exact moment you’ll be able to enjoy what Saros has to offer.

Saros release countdown

Saros goes live globally on April 29 in the Americas, but on April 30 in other regions. However, there’s an early access window that is available with the Digital Deluxe Edition. The early access offers up to 48 hours of extra gameplay for the owners. The following countdown will expire once the early access begins.

[hurrytimer id=”1210198″]

The countdown is based on the following timings.

• 9pm PDT (April 27)
• 11pm CDT (April 27)
• 12am EDT
• 4am UTC
• 5am BST
• 6am CET
• 1pm JST
• 2pm AEST

The following countdown will expire once the Standard Edition goes live. This is the official time of launch when everyone can start enjoying the content.

[hurrytimer id=”1210199″]

• 9pm PDT (April 29)
• 11pm CDT (April 29)
• 12am EDT
• 4am UTC
• 5am BST
• 6am CET
• 1pm JST
• 2pm AEST

What to expect from Saros

Saros is a PS5 exclusive that puts you in the shoes of Arjun Devraj. As a Soltari enforcer, you’re tasked with investigating Carcosa. At its heart, the game is a rogue-lite experience, where failure will happen. However, you will still gain something from one run that you can carry to the next one.

Every run will feature dangerous enemies and bosses to take down. To help your cause, you’ll be able to customize your loadout and improve your weapons across your runs. You’ll also gain different resources that will help you to do that. Finally, you can always make use of your Second Chance mechanic (needs to be unlocked), which works as a reset switch if something goes terribly wrong.

While things look and sound pretty exciting, Saros will only be available to PS5 players for the time being. There’s always a chance for it to arrive later on PC, but that seems quite unlikely as of writing.

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