It’s not the clearest photo, but it clearly has both 2 thumb sticks and 2 track pads.
You must log in or register to comment.
Anyone got a non-xitter copy of this news?
There will probably be gamingonlinux/steamdeckhq articles in the morning, but for now this is the only source.
“…it clearly has both 2 thumb sticks and 2 track pads.”
Hell yes, I am very bullish on the two thumb sticks and two touchpads being the controller format that will establish the steam deck/handheld gaming pc as the future of gamepads.
It won’t necessarily be a quick, all at once change, but that is because it is a strategic longterm play to reframe what a gamepad is, what its limitations are, and what kind of games can be played with a gamepad.
It will be the kind of thing people look back and point to as the beginning of the whole industry shifting into a new paradigm where playing cool indie games with a gamepad is something people associate with pc gaming first, console gaming second.
They just better have a gyro sensor in there too!
Fantastic. I love my steam controller, I’ll buy the next one in a heartbeat
I fear that, just like the Steam Deck’s controller, it won’t be usable without Steam running. IMO by default and without any special “driver” running in the background, the sticks and buttons should just behave like a Xbox controller.
The original Steam controller worked without Steam running, even including some of the extra features like mouse and scrolling functions for the trackpads if you wanted it to. So here’s hoping
I have big hands, and just looking at this picture makes me think even I’m going to have trouble using the control sticks normally. They’re literally the closest thing to the center of the controller.
That being said, it’s just my first impression of it, and this looks like it might just be a prototype, so I’ll wait and see.
There were similar concerns when the steam deck was first revealed, and it works fine. So I’m not too worried.
This seems like a prototype that they can make using the parts from the current deck.
I’m not sure the two square pads make sense on an actual controller, and I feel like those thumbsticks would be just out of comfortable reach.
I’m a big Steam Controller trackpad user, and I already nearly never use my Deck trackpads because they’re too low down. This new one just looks like a normal controller with extra bulk, and nonsense in the area no controller except the N64 used because it’s not where most people grow fingers. I guess it’ll at least have paddles, but they’re hardly a unique feature these days. I really just wanted the existing one again, but with more paddles, an option for an integrated battery, USB-C instead of micro B, and an official supply of replacement thumbsticks instead of having to bodge in 8bitdo ones that aren’t quite the same shape.
Oddly, I almost exclusively use the trackpads on my deck. I tend to play mainly mouse-driven games.
I can understand where you’re coming from, but this is realistically a better option for Valve and most consumers right now.
When Valve made the original Steam Controller they were trying to kickstart the Steam Box, which at the time played PC games that were not optimized for controller input on a TV. They needed to have a very outside the box contoller to accomplish this, and so they gave the Steam Controller a try. The touchpad inputs with enough custom mapping really were revolutionary, but only for a small crowd that wanted to play Sim City on their TV.
Nowadays, every game has standard controller input. Trying to get people who are used to the joysticks to switch to virtual trackpads is a non starter, even if it could be technically superior in some circumstances. The compromise is what we have now, a full controller layout with touchpads as extras, to maintain that backward compatibility with old PC games. I think it’s the right decision, and this is personally the controller I’ve been waiting for.
I’d love to see Steam re-make the old Steam Controller to give old fans a replacement, and I hope they do someday, but they have to pick their battles as they certainly wouldn’t sell in any volume. In a previous quest for a perfect controller I came across an open source 3D printed one called the Alpakka. Maybe DIY or a startup indie company will pick up the torch where Valve left off to give a true replacement? I hope so because the right controller for the right job is a wonderful thing.
That’s reasonable, but the market’s already flooded with generic controllers at various price points and degrees of quality. If the idea’s to make money, the new design won’t do brilliantly as things like the awkwardly-placed trackpads will increase manufacturing costs without being a killer feature that makes most people prefer to spend more on this particular controller. If the idea’s to make something viable that hadn’t been before (which is what Valve normally seem to go for), then this isn’t serving the discontinued Steam Controller’s niche as effectively as the original did, and isn’t serving any new niche, either.
By the way, the thing they were trying at the same time as the original Steam Controller was the Steam Machine, not the Steam Box. It also kind of did work, as the couch PC gaming part mostly happened, but it took a decade of improvements to Proton and abandoning third-party hardware manufacturers before Linux-based console-like PCs became viable in the form of the Steam Deck. Ten years ago, nearly no games ran under Linux, and all the Steam Machine manufacturers were just changing the logo on one of their existing prebuilts and charging an extra $100 not to install Windows on it, so you were better off with any other desktop.
You’re right, it was called the Steam Machine, my mistake. I honestly don’t think it was very influential in pushing Linux gaming forward, it was a first attempt that was ahead of it’s time and Valve kept after it.
The market is flooded with various controllers, but they’re all basically the same. I think what Valve is going for here is not really a new controller to take the world by storm, but a companion controller to help sell the Steam Deck. In order for it to be a true companion it must match all the inputs the SD had so people don’t have to change their bindings. I play the SD docked and I have to say switching between an Xbox and SC depending on the game and adapting my bindings is annoying when it all just works on the native controls.
When Valve made the SC they were starting from scratch and went with an ambitious design, and let’s be frank, no one but a small niche of people liked it because they had grown up with thumbsticks and were unwilling to relearn. With the SD they compromised with both input schemes, which I have to say we need to be grateful for. Look at all the SD competitors and they all ditched trackpads to appeal to the general market. Valve could have done this too.
So largely I agree with you, it would be nice to have a SC 2.0, but I honestly don’t think this new leaked one will sell all that well. It’s just a companion to sell Decks and I’m grateful they are willing to try that.
They need to market it properly. The average gamer didn’t know how to use the SC to its fullest potential. I would recommend free software that showcases the controllers abilities that can be used with competitor controllers for comparisons. Software with simple games that teaches the user how to make use of all the functions would be a great boon to their sales. It would also help reviews spread the word.
Honestly, the biggest issue with the original was that it’s non-traditional layout meant that games with built in controller support didn’t necessarily work well on it. This layout will make it full featured as a “normal controller”, while offering additional input options when the game benefits from it.
Iant that what Aperture Desk Job did?
WOOOOOOOO
Looks like I’ll be spending $200 for 4 controllers
^Original ^SC ^price: ^$50
This thing looks almost as big as The Duke.
what 650g shape are you holding for an hour that doesn’t cause wrist pain?
SadleyItsBradley is the bane of every developer trying to keep a secret.
God dammit, why will nobody bring back 6 button pads? I’m so sick and tired of having to buy a separate controller just for fighting games. This controller would be absolutely perfect if it just had two more buttons…
Not the same thing, but the steam input allows you to make virtual buttons and assign them to the area of a touchpad.
Well that’s better than nothing so I’ll take it.
I’m just glad that Valve is bringing back the Steam controller. So sick and tired of boring, uninnovative Xbox and Playstation controllers. I like the idea of toggle switches under the controller that aren’t just remaps of existing buttons, and actually usable touchpads. I hope the left stick and D-pad are hot-swappable in the final version, but beggars can’t be choosers.
