After reports that Valve had received shipments of the accessory, a Steam Controller review has appeared. Deleted ahead of a likely release date update, a YouTuber praised its responsive dual trackpads. Even so, the price may make it more difficult to discount the Steam Machine.
I thought a lot of the customizations are actually just steam configurations, you can’t remap the buttons on device as you can a PS5 pro controller.
I will say I’ll pay for joy sticks that don’t die — if you amortize the cost of the Steam controller against my 3 dead Joy cons and 2 dead PS5 controllers it probably works out better. Sony’s offering of “buy a controller that costs 5x the base controller then we will sell you a supply of joysticks that will inevitably die for $20 each” is insulting at best. But I do like the PS5 Pro controller’s joystick customizations, customizable back buttons, and remapping the physical controller (though I hate that you can only manage the remapping on your playstation).
$99 isn’t bad at all when you compare what you can do with it to any ‘pro gamer’ controller out there. It has massive programmable potential comparatively to a normal Xbox controller. Pro controllers usually run $150 and up. Yes this is pricier than a shit ass China controller but you’re also getting a massive amount of flexibility with it.
I appreciate the enthusiasm but the controller market offers way more than you think. There are fantastic controllers with great hardware and software for less than a standard Xbox controller. I went deep after two Xbox controllers failed fairly quickly and I expect great things from any controller that is $100. I’ve gotten used to mechanical switches, strong layouts, software and software-free options with onboard memory, and so on.
There are no controllers, no matter the price point, with touchpads like this, capacitive thumb sticks etc. And the stuff you can do with Steams controller settings is WAY beyond any other controller software.
The track pads are for sure unique and cool. The lack of proper adjustable short-throw triggers and the non-mechanical buttons will feel bad to what I am used to. I may still get one for the reason you point out though, I could play Age of Empires with it and further embrace my casual nature.
There are so many videos of people going through insane quantities of controllers. I would say to take each with a grain of salt though, as a lot of preference comes in. For me, I wanted mechanical buttons + triggers, buttons on the back, and an option to switch to short triggers that felt better than a lot of the ones where a feeble piece of plastic seems to just slide in the way. I tried quite a few, gave some to friends, and ended up championing the GameSir Cyclone 2. It is not perfect, but it works with my Linux setup and feels great with all the clickyness everywhere. My gripe is how the thing looks: it isn’t a pretty controller in my opinion. I think I got mine for around $50 with the dock included. I think standard is $50 without dock and $10 more for with the dock.
I do have my eyes on some other options though. Mostly because the start and select buttons are in a stupid spot on the Cyclone 2. Nothing has swayed me away from it yet though, and that has only been a problem in games where I push those very very frequently (I have no navigation skills and open my maps very often).
Notably, Linux support sucks with those. I have one, and you can’t do any of this on Linux through their software. There are ways to do it still though, as you can do with any controller really.
Linux hardware support is excellent given that 8bitdo is the usual recommended brand. The software part is the one lacking, but you can easily configure it via steam. I have one on Linux, I game without issues.
Is there any 8bitdo controller with 4 additional back buttons, too? Those are clutch for dual stick games; I’m almost always remapping then to the face buttons so I never need to stop moving or looking to do an action.
But yeah; the touchpads are critical. So many games become playable with touchpads. Nested radial menus allow for effectively infinitely many controls, which allows for most simulation games. Many Path of Exile builds are unplayable without back buttons and trackpad radial menus, due to input requirements.
tbh, I often play games on my Deck instead of my gaming PC for the controller. It’s really that good. (Although nothing beats kB+mouse for FPSs.)
Two of them are up by the triggers, though. And in Bazzite, you need to be connected via Bluetooth to use them (they’re not available with the RF dongle).
Hmm. That kinda makes sense, if they’re new; Bazzite is immutable, so I imagine it’s using an outdated kernel that doesn’t have recent drivers. I’d be curious if it works with SteamOS or CachyOS, as they’re both gaming focused distros with frequent updates (CachyOS moreso than SteamOS, afaik.)
For its feature set, nah feels fine. I’ll likely preorder it. Still cheaper than pro controllers, but has all the inputs I’d expect from those, and more.
The Steam Deck has an absolutely fantastic set of inputs. If the new controller comes with the all the same bells and whistles then it will be well worth the price.
What do you mean “if”? All the features have been shown and they are all there, even some more than the deck has. They were all shown for It’s announcement, literally the very first moment everyone heard about it.
It has more features than an Ultimate 2, and has one of a kind joystick tech. It’s also going to be what they test Steam machine against, so it’s the most likely to interface well with any game. It certainly makes sense for it to go for around 100, especially since that’s still way below the pro Xbox and PlayStation controllers.
Yikes. I get it’s a lot of hardware crammed into a controller. Even the OG Steam Controller was only $50. I still have mine, sitting in a box somewhere. I don’t know if one extra pad and joystick is enough to justify upgrading. Especially when practically no game supports the thing.
You are technically right in that Steam Input allows you to map every input for each game. But that’s an additional layer Steam provides over the game. It’s not the game natively supporting the controller itself like you get with the console maker’s controllers. Ever notice how many games don’t have proper icons for Steam Controller? Or how in game trackpad support is almost non existent? Steam does all the work to make the controller work and it’s great, but it’s not the same as the game natively supporting the controller.
What you’re saying is entirely correct: Steam Input not the same thing as maybe in-game support. Steam Input is usually better.
With Steam Input, I can customize it to do anything I want:
Gyro + stick aiming
Touchpads as buttons
Touchpads with nested radial menus
Input cycling on the same input (think like alternating using potion 1 vs. potion 2 to split cooldowns)
Gesture 180° turns
Multi-input macros
Ain’t no game ever going to give you that level of control.
Steam Input has spoiled me to the point that I barely ever game on my gaming desktop. Steam Input trumps a 32" 1440p screen with higher fps and graphics settings. It’s that important to me that I’d rather play on a 7" screen with 40 fps.
Wild how the previous Steam Controller was such a flop that Valve had to clear their inventory by selling them all for $5 each, and now the new Steam Controller is going to be $100 out the gate.
I’ve been really looking forward to this, especially as a Bazzite HTPC Steam Box controller, but that feels shockingly steep to me.
I do believe Valve actually learns lessons from failure. They certainly seem to have with the new Steam Machine vs the old Steam Machine. Making it a console-like device instead of somekind of ecosystem. So I am leaning toward the new Controller not being a massive pile of shit.
Oh for sure. I liked the original Steam Controller for what it was and I’m excited for the new one to give me a Deck-like experience on my Bazzite PC. I’m confident this will be a good controller.
I just think it’s kind of a big swing going from the $5 bargain bin device to the $100 follow up. I wonder how many people are going to think they can wait for this one to go into clearance?
The only reason you’d buy one is if you’re going to use the touchpads, because otherwise this looks pretty expensive and bulky. Especially for PC, there are some really good relatively cheap 3rd party controllers now. I have a friend that bought a ~$20 GameSir controller and is very happy with it .
I dont care how much it is, I’m buying one. I always said that the Xbox controller is holding back gaming. Sony and Nintendo are always doing something different with their controllers so why not Microsoft? I’m happy to see valve innovating in this space.
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$99 with never having to worry about stick drift while having triple the battery life of Dual Sense? This is a steal…
Considering what i paid for a xbox pro controller, which ia the biggest piece of shit imaginable, 99 bucks is a steal.
$100 for a controller that:
How much are for xbox pro controller again?
I thought a lot of the customizations are actually just steam configurations, you can’t remap the buttons on device as you can a PS5 pro controller.
I will say I’ll pay for joy sticks that don’t die — if you amortize the cost of the Steam controller against my 3 dead Joy cons and 2 dead PS5 controllers it probably works out better. Sony’s offering of “buy a controller that costs 5x the base controller then we will sell you a supply of joysticks that will inevitably die for $20 each” is insulting at best. But I do like the PS5 Pro controller’s joystick customizations, customizable back buttons, and remapping the physical controller (though I hate that you can only manage the remapping on your playstation).
The xbox pros are like $70 and they are trash. I bought an OG steam controller and I have no complaints.
$99 isn’t bad at all when you compare what you can do with it to any ‘pro gamer’ controller out there. It has massive programmable potential comparatively to a normal Xbox controller. Pro controllers usually run $150 and up. Yes this is pricier than a shit ass China controller but you’re also getting a massive amount of flexibility with it.
I appreciate the enthusiasm but the controller market offers way more than you think. There are fantastic controllers with great hardware and software for less than a standard Xbox controller. I went deep after two Xbox controllers failed fairly quickly and I expect great things from any controller that is $100. I’ve gotten used to mechanical switches, strong layouts, software and software-free options with onboard memory, and so on.
There are no controllers, no matter the price point, with touchpads like this, capacitive thumb sticks etc. And the stuff you can do with Steams controller settings is WAY beyond any other controller software.
The track pads are for sure unique and cool. The lack of proper adjustable short-throw triggers and the non-mechanical buttons will feel bad to what I am used to. I may still get one for the reason you point out though, I could play Age of Empires with it and further embrace my casual nature.
Do share your wisdom. By which I mean the sauce.
There are so many videos of people going through insane quantities of controllers. I would say to take each with a grain of salt though, as a lot of preference comes in. For me, I wanted mechanical buttons + triggers, buttons on the back, and an option to switch to short triggers that felt better than a lot of the ones where a feeble piece of plastic seems to just slide in the way. I tried quite a few, gave some to friends, and ended up championing the GameSir Cyclone 2. It is not perfect, but it works with my Linux setup and feels great with all the clickyness everywhere. My gripe is how the thing looks: it isn’t a pretty controller in my opinion. I think I got mine for around $50 with the dock included. I think standard is $50 without dock and $10 more for with the dock.
I do have my eyes on some other options though. Mostly because the start and select buttons are in a stupid spot on the Cyclone 2. Nothing has swayed me away from it yet though, and that has only been a problem in games where I push those very very frequently (I have no navigation skills and open my maps very often).
Functionally, you can do the same Steam Input customization on a $50 8bitdo that you can on this $100 controller.
Just no trackpads.
Notably, Linux support sucks with those. I have one, and you can’t do any of this on Linux through their software. There are ways to do it still though, as you can do with any controller really.
FWIW… Bazzite has full Steam Input support for mine… It even has a picture of my specific controller.
Steam Input works fine. I’m specifically talking about their custom software for the controller, which is also used to update firmware.
Linux hardware support is excellent given that 8bitdo is the usual recommended brand. The software part is the one lacking, but you can easily configure it via steam. I have one on Linux, I game without issues.
Is there any 8bitdo controller with 4 additional back buttons, too? Those are clutch for dual stick games; I’m almost always remapping then to the face buttons so I never need to stop moving or looking to do an action.
But yeah; the touchpads are critical. So many games become playable with touchpads. Nested radial menus allow for effectively infinitely many controls, which allows for most simulation games. Many Path of Exile builds are unplayable without back buttons and trackpad radial menus, due to input requirements.
tbh, I often play games on my Deck instead of my gaming PC for the controller. It’s really that good. (Although nothing beats kB+mouse for FPSs.)
My Ultimate 2 Wireless has 4 extra buttons.
Two of them are up by the triggers, though. And in Bazzite, you need to be connected via Bluetooth to use them (they’re not available with the RF dongle).
Hmm. That kinda makes sense, if they’re new; Bazzite is immutable, so I imagine it’s using an outdated kernel that doesn’t have recent drivers. I’d be curious if it works with SteamOS or CachyOS, as they’re both gaming focused distros with frequent updates (CachyOS moreso than SteamOS, afaik.)
http://archive.today/sKJ0a
For its feature set, nah feels fine. I’ll likely preorder it. Still cheaper than pro controllers, but has all the inputs I’d expect from those, and more.
The Steam Deck has an absolutely fantastic set of inputs. If the new controller comes with the all the same bells and whistles then it will be well worth the price.
What do you mean “if”? All the features have been shown and they are all there, even some more than the deck has. They were all shown for It’s announcement, literally the very first moment everyone heard about it.
Hey man, we don’t all keep up with controller news. This is your opportunity to provide good news about this to someone. No need to be harsh.
Disappoint? That’s a reasonable price lol
$99 USD is hard to justify. 8BitDo Ultimate is half the price and a great controller.
It’s closer to 2/3 the price than 1/2. It also does a lot less.
Not that I don’t love almost everything 8bitdo.
It has more features than an Ultimate 2, and has one of a kind joystick tech. It’s also going to be what they test Steam machine against, so it’s the most likely to interface well with any game. It certainly makes sense for it to go for around 100, especially since that’s still way below the pro Xbox and PlayStation controllers.
People forgetting the “pro” controllers of consoles are $200??
$99 is incredibly reasonable for all the tech you are getting with this thing.
Oof. That hurts. Was planning to pick this up but at that price I may wait…
Yikes. I get it’s a lot of hardware crammed into a controller. Even the OG Steam Controller was only $50. I still have mine, sitting in a box somewhere. I don’t know if one extra pad and joystick is enough to justify upgrading. Especially when practically no game supports the thing.
Technically every game supports it since steam Input allows you to remap any possible input from KBM or a traditional controller onto it.
I guess it may be more intuitive for steam deck owners.
You are technically right in that Steam Input allows you to map every input for each game. But that’s an additional layer Steam provides over the game. It’s not the game natively supporting the controller itself like you get with the console maker’s controllers. Ever notice how many games don’t have proper icons for Steam Controller? Or how in game trackpad support is almost non existent? Steam does all the work to make the controller work and it’s great, but it’s not the same as the game natively supporting the controller.
What you’re saying is entirely correct: Steam Input not the same thing as maybe in-game support. Steam Input is usually better.
With Steam Input, I can customize it to do anything I want:
Ain’t no game ever going to give you that level of control.
Steam Input has spoiled me to the point that I barely ever game on my gaming desktop. Steam Input trumps a 32" 1440p screen with higher fps and graphics settings. It’s that important to me that I’d rather play on a 7" screen with 40 fps.
Wild how the previous Steam Controller was such a flop that Valve had to clear their inventory by selling them all for $5 each, and now the new Steam Controller is going to be $100 out the gate.
I’ve been really looking forward to this, especially as a Bazzite HTPC Steam Box controller, but that feels shockingly steep to me.
I do believe Valve actually learns lessons from failure. They certainly seem to have with the new Steam Machine vs the old Steam Machine. Making it a console-like device instead of somekind of ecosystem. So I am leaning toward the new Controller not being a massive pile of shit.
The failure of the controller was because they lost a patent lawsuit against Crucial, not because it was a bad product.
Corsair, not Crucial
Oh for sure. I liked the original Steam Controller for what it was and I’m excited for the new one to give me a Deck-like experience on my Bazzite PC. I’m confident this will be a good controller.
I just think it’s kind of a big swing going from the $5 bargain bin device to the $100 follow up. I wonder how many people are going to think they can wait for this one to go into clearance?
I’m pretty sure that the original sold for something like 45 or 50 at the time. Maybe more.
Was it really a flop? I thought they needed to clear stock because of some patent dispute with
CrucialCorsair.Edit: as pointed, it was Corsair, not Crucial
Yep. It was. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/court-upholds-jurys-decision-in-steam-controller-patent-dispute
Not Crucial, Corsair. They own SCUF, the patent trolls that decided to keep back buttons for themselves.
Thankfully Valve eventually won their appeal, and SCUD’s patent was invalidated. But by that point the damage was already done
Thanks for the correction, you are right. I only have one PSU from Corsair, our paths didn’t cross that much.
I actually got a couple of those $5 controllers for spare parts before it shut down, I’m glad someone else remembers that actually happened.
I feel ripped off at getting 4 for $15 each!
It’s a better value than the console makers pro controllers. Looking to use the touchpads on an HTPC
It’s not shocking considering the price of console controllers
The only reason you’d buy one is if you’re going to use the touchpads, because otherwise this looks pretty expensive and bulky. Especially for PC, there are some really good relatively cheap 3rd party controllers now. I have a friend that bought a ~$20 GameSir controller and is very happy with it .
I think the prices should be low. This way, we’ll create a better mode. Life mode.
That’s a steep ask in CAD. Wanted two, one for my partner and me each. But now I’m thinking we’ll wait for the first kind of sale, even if it’s 10%.
I dont care how much it is, I’m buying one. I always said that the Xbox controller is holding back gaming. Sony and Nintendo are always doing something different with their controllers so why not Microsoft? I’m happy to see valve innovating in this space.