‘99% of the work was already done in a sense’: Valve says it has less to fix with the Steam Machine because they already fixed it on the Steam Deck
Valve engineers have revealed that their extensive development work on the Steam Deck has significantly reduced the amount of fixes and refinement needed for the upcoming Steam Machine. In an interview, Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais stated that approximately 99% of the foundational work was already completed through the Steam Deck project, demonstrating how iterative hardware development benefits subsequent products.
The Steam Machine and Steam Deck target different use cases, requiring distinct engineering approaches. While the Steam Deck focused on handheld gaming performance and portability, the Steam Machine requires optimization for different hardware configurations, including discrete GPUs, VRAM management, and ray tracing performance—considerations that were less critical for the portable device. Despite these differences, the underlying technology and solutions developed for the Deck have provided a strong foundation for the Steam Machine’s development.
This approach reflects a common principle in hardware design: learning from one product generation to streamline development of the next. Valve’s strategy of leveraging Steam Deck insights demonstrates how platform iteration can accelerate development timelines and improve final product quality.