Valve's Steam Controller may finally, finally be ready

[Scorpus]

Valve first announced their Steam Controller in September of 2013, with two touchpads, a centered touchscreen and a few extra buttons around the strange design. It's now early 2015, and the controller still hasn't been released, despite undergoing several publicly reported redesigns.

New information as reported by GameSpot reveals that the Steam Controller may finally be ready for release. It seems that the final revision of the controller, leaked in December and seen above, may be good enough to use with a range of living room PCs and PC games, and won't need any further tweaking.

The info comes straight from the mouth of Origin PC CEO Kevin Wasielewski at CES 2015, who claimed that Valve will have more to reveal at GDC 2015 in March. He also said that the term "Steam Machine" is basically meaningless these days, with "living room PC" most accurately reflecting what these systems are designed for.

The latest iteration of the Steam Controller appears to include some sort of directional pad (potentially touch-bassed) alongside an analog stick, selection of faceplate buttons and a touchpad. There's also the standard trigger buttons, making this controller a hybrid of the original Steam Controller design and more traditional game console controllers.

So far, Valve hasn't officially announced any release date, pricing or final design for the Steam Controller. The Steam Machines program also remains in limbo, while their Linux-based SteamOS is still in beta.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/59368-valve-steam-controller-may-finally-finally-ready.html

 

[Namtrooper]

I foresee many iterations of this controller before it is perfected.

 

[ET3D]

I foresee many iterations of this controller before it is perfected.

Clearly we'll have a version 1 controller released, then a few years later a version 2 controller. Then....

 

[WangDangDoodle]

Valve is ice skating uphill with this project. The Steam Controller is a halfbreed failure. It's never going to beat the Xbox/Playstation pads or a mouse/keyboard. I don't get why they haven't given up already. After a few more revisions, it's gonna start looking like the N64 pad, which was created for aliens with three arms.

I haven't actually used a Steam Controller, of course, and people keep saying, "You'll get used to it." Well, I didn't grow a third arm for the N64, and I can't imagine how playing Street Fighter IV, MMOs, RTS, FPS or even a simple old school platformer would be better with this sad, mutant misconception of a terrible idea.

The whole idea seems to be born from the fact that Gabe is too fat to fit in an office chair, and he needs something to work with from the couch. So now he's wasting Valve's money creating a tool for gamers that's become disabled on hamburgers. I'm completely jazzed about the Steam Machine and Steam OS, but he's ruining the whole platform with this ridiculous pad! *GRR* < Take note!

 

[Kibaruk]

Don't you mess with the N64 dude, back off! =P

As a new piece of hardware I smell failure too it won't have any actual difference with nowaday console pads, but diehard fans will love it, and then it will have some neat integration with Steam aaaaand you'll get used to it.

 

[Guest]

This comment is clearly from a console user. I've been a PC gamer since the 90's & always found controllers cumbersome. The preciseness with a keyboard & mouse is something console gamers can never quite get their tiny minds around.

I see where Valve/Steam are going with this & think it's a step in the right direction. The controller is fully customizable which can make the track pads do numerous things depending on the genre of game.

When I went from NES to SNES to N64 to GameCube ALL of the controllers were different with each console release. Get your head out of your ***.

 

[LNCPapa]

This comment is clearly from a console user. I've been a PC gamer since the 90's & always found controllers cumbersome. The preciseness with a keyboard & mouse is something console gamers can never quite get their tiny minds around.

This comment is clearly from a closed minded, self-centered PC user. I, too, have been a PC gamer for some time (mid 80's) and even though I typically prefer the keyboard+mouse setup for gaming I realize that there are genres of game where a controller is better for a larger segment of users. I think you should let users make their own choices and if they want to "handicap" themselves by using their desired control scheme that doesn't match your own choices then let them. Keyboard + mouse isn't for everyone (though it's my prefered scheme for FPS and RTS games) and I know people who just cannot get used to it - just as I can't get used to using a controller for an FPS game.