Valve is reportedly working on Steam Deck 2 and plans to launch it by 2028, with one big change from the original

Valve’s hardware department has been working hard on bringing the Steam Machine, Steam Controller, and the Steam Frame to consumers by the end of this year. Planned for much earlier per many reports, the global supply chain has significantly delayed their launch, but that isn’t stopping the company from RnD-ing even more devices for future releases, with interesting new ideas.

That brings us to the Steam Deck 2, Valve’s rumored successor to what could easily be considered one of the best mobile gaming devices to date. Though nothing is official yet, TechPowerUp reports that Valve is actively developing its new Steam Deck variant and wants to put it on the market sometime in 2028. That is, if global supply chains allow for the device to ever come out, as the prospects of already-announced hardware are rather dubious already.

To solve and combat those issues, the same ones faced by the first Steam Deck, Valve is reportedly not going to contract AMD to make a semi-custom processing solution for the Steam Deck 2. Instead of the company having to spend a lot of time and resources on making a tailored APU for the Steam Deck 2, Valve is opting for “off the shelf” processors and developing the device and its OS around them.

As TechPowerUp explains, this will help Valve be much more up-to-date with competitors and reduce the time necessary to develop and ship the device.

This is a particularly viable plan as AMD’s APUs can often be configured for custom TDP targets, TechPowerUp writes, allowing Valve to more or less customize the device’s internals even if the APU itself isn’t tailor-made. Furthermore, waiting for custom memory solutions given present shortages shouldn’t be as much of an issue if Valve doesn’t go down the semi-custom route.

The Steam Deck is definitely one of the best mobile gaming devices ever made and is single-handedly improving Linux’s market share, since it runs on Valve’s own distro called SteamOS. As time goes by, the semi-custom APU of the Steam Deck is starting to show its age, as it was simply left behind by the progress of technology and software since 2022. The same happens to consoles that also have semi-custom internals, and it’s only a matter of time before they’re rendered “obsolete” in a contemporary market.

I hope the Steam Deck 2 lives up to expectations and makes use of advanced processing that’ll be available in the next couple of years. It could significantly elevate mobile gaming and further advance Linux as a viable, useful, and lightweight solution for casual gamers.

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Prototype gears have arrived in The Division 2 with the start of Year 8 Season 1, and they currently sit at the top of all types of weapons/armors. Gears belonging to this item quality sit above High-End, Named, and other set items, making them truly unique.

Let’s find out how you can get these elusive items to improve your arsenal.

How to obtain Prototype gears in The Division 2

To obtain Prototype gears, you’ll need to participate in missions belonging to the Escalation mode. This is a new difficulty to complete missions that you’ve previously completed inside the game. Every week will have a set number of missions to finish.

There are ten different tiers for each mission. The higher the difficulty, the better your chances of getting Prototype gears. However, you can also get more of these items via the route of upgrades.

How to upgrade to Prototype gears in The Division 2

You can upgrade items starting from High-End quality to Prototype gear. To do so, you’ll need a Prototype Core. The cosen item must also be at the maximum Expertise level (30), and the item must be at maximum level (40). The item doesn’t need to be full optimized for the conversion.

Once you change an item to Prototype gear, it can no longer be optimized or recalibrated. Hence, pay full attention to its stats before spending the Prototype Core on it. However, the upgrade is worth it since your gear will improve its stats and also gain augments.

Here’s a list of augments that are currently available.

• Quantum – Provides a small chance to become temporarily immune to damage.
• Echo – Each bullet fired has a chance to deal its damage a second time.
• Atomize – Increases grenade radius and damage.
• Amalgam – Each bullet hit has a chance to apply a random status effect.
• Trapper – Increases the duration of status effects you apply.
• Entropy – Increases your Health based on a percentage of your total Armor.
• Anomaly – Skills restore a portion of the damage they deal as healing.
• Paradox – Provides a chance to refill part of your magazine while firing.
• Synesthesia – Bullet hits have a chance to slightly reduce skill cooldowns.

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