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. Here's what he told IGN:

"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."

It is important to remember the context behind Valve's recent hardware launches. The Steam Machine ended up at $1,049 for its base model, and the Steam Frame launched at $1,059, both well above what Valve had reportedly hoped to charge before memory prices spiked. Griffais admitted pricing has likely dented demand for those two products, though he said it's hard to quantify how much. For the Steam Deck 2, Valve says the crisis hasn't had a significant impact on development plans, at least for now. That pressure might eventually reach the Steam Deck 2, since its release is still some ways away and Valve still hasn't given any indication of a launch window yet.