Valve has confirmed that the ongoing DRAM shortage hasn't changed anything about its plans for a Steam Deck 2, even though the crisis has driven up prices on the company's other hardware. Speaking with IGN's Jacqueline Thomas, Valve developer Pierre-Loup Griffais was asked directly whether the memory shortage had affected the next handheld's development.

Griffais stated: 'We've talked before about how we want to make sure there's a very delineated performance improvement for something like a future Steam Deck, and I think we're still looking at it in the same way. It's just a matter of looking at the current conditions and seeing how and when we can deliver something like that. But from what we're working on, as far as the user experience goes and what the product that we're trying to build goes, it's very similar goals.'

The DRAM shortage has already impacted Valve's recent hardware launches, with the Steam Machine ending up at $1,049 for its base model and the Steam Frame launching at $1,059, both well above original pricing hopes. Griffais admitted pricing has likely dented demand for those products, though quantifying the impact remains difficult.