Valve engineers have discussed the differences between the two devices in terms of their performance goals. While Steam Deck needs a more stable hardware target over a longer period, Steam Machine may follow the faster-moving upgrade cycles of the PC gaming market.

While the Steam Machine is only a few days old, some are already wondering if Valve’s new device will receive new versions in the coming years. The creators of Steam are aware of this question, and although it’s still too early to consider a hypothetical Steam Machine 2, they confirmed in a recent interview that the team follows a specific philosophy regarding the release of additional models for their PC-console. In fact, the company founded by Gabe Newell can state that the update cycle for their latest product will differ significantly from the existing Steam Deck and will be more similar to the trends we’ve seen in the PC gaming landscape.

At least, that’s how engineers Pierre-Loup Griffais and Yazan Aldehayyat described it in an interview with PC Gamer, where they discussed everything from SteamOS 3.0 integration and system compatibility to the Steam Machine’s lifespan. To explain the logic behind this last point, the Valve members recalled some of the key features of their popular portable device. “Steam Deck needs a slightly more fixed performance target so that developers and users can say, ‘What can I play on this?’ and that picture doesn’t change every year or two. It stands on its own long enough to make sense for that segment, in my opinion,” Griffais began.

“Meanwhile, Steam Machine is more in line with PC gaming. There’s a wide range of low-end CPUs, high-end CPUs, and GPUs. Steam Machine sits somewhere within that range. So, having a fixed performance target for five years or so is less important here,” he continued. “We’re not thinking about as long a timeframe as something like Steam Deck. At the same time, we don’t have any immediate plans to say, ‘Oh, in X years we’ll have a different performance target’ or anything like that. We’re really intrigued to see how things develop. You know, there are a lot of questions about the next generations of systems, when they’ll hit the market, how games will adapt. I expect we’ll see a lot of cross-gen stuff for a while. Anything is possible; anything can happen.”

Valve Predicts a “Natural Slowdown” in the PC Upgrade Cycle

However, the PC gaming landscape is undergoing unprecedented changes, and Steam Machine will also be affected. In this regard, Aldehayyat believes that the current technological crisis, stemming from price increases in components like RAM modules and storage devices, will lead users to upgrade their computers less frequently. This, in turn, could also extend Steam Machine’s lifespan. “I think we’re seeing a natural slowdown in the PC gaming upgrade cycle. People will hold onto their hardware for longer. So, in a way, that probably means Steam Machine is a viable product for longer than you would have expected if it had been released 10 years ago,” the engineer explained.

“Basically, it will be in line with typical PC upgrade cycles and what people usually do,” he continued. “Because, as we said before with Steam Deck, we basically gave you the best performance we could in a portable device. Now we have options for the future; we can give you whatever performance we want. It’s a question of when it makes sense to do it, at what price, at what point, based on the games that are available. If games come out on Steam that require higher performance, that will probably make us want to upgrade Steam Machine more often, and so on.” However, considering the device’s launch price and the grim outlook for the tech sector going forward, the biggest fear regarding hypothetical new versions of Steam Machine will be more related to their cost.

Source: 3DJuegos