Accidental discovery: Valve baked a clever Easter Egg into its new Steam Controller and it only took roughly a week for gamers to accidentally discover it. The gag is easy to replicate although the exact criteria to make it work every time haven't been fully hashed out yet.
The second-gen Steam Controller launched to much fanfare on May 4 priced at $99. The high-end gamepad sold out within half an hour thanks in large part to scalpers scooping them up in bundles and reselling them for massive profits. A newly implemented reservation system looks to address the issue when more inventory goes on sale, however.
As for the Easter Egg, it's difficult to pinpoint who discovered it first but Reddit user RF3D19 is a leading candidate. According to their post, the user tossed the controller onto their bed and noticed it sounded as if it let out a scream. Upon further investigation, the clip seems to be the Wilhelm scream – a well-known stock sound effect first featured in the 1951 movie Distant Drums.
The gag seems to have a timeout period to prevent repeated triggers, and may be playing via the haptic motors inside the controller rather than via a speaker. CNET notes that the controller doesn't have to be paired to another device for the Egg to activate.
Whether or not this proves to be a clever one-off or the start of a whole new trend in gamepads remains to be seen. Imagine Mario letting out a fearful cry if you accidentally dropped your Switch 2 or Claptrap chastising you for letting your PS5 controller hit the floor.
Should it take off, I could easily envision an entire ecosystem of custom audio effect DLC priced at $0.99 each. Think of it as the custom ringtone fad, but for gamepads instead of phones. After all, we have to monetize everything these days, no?
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Image credit: CNET