Valve update: Steam Controller revealed
This article will be the final installment in a three part series dedicated to the latest reveals made by Valve. As the company have stated before, they aim to expand their Steam service to the living room and mobile devices. The prospect of playing PC games from the couch without compromises to the gaming experience, in a way, boils down to controller input. Thus the Steam Controller.
Similar to the Steam Prototype the controller design hasn’t been finalized, instead Valve opts to release the joystick during their beta program and expects user’s feedback to shape the device. The company also plans to release tools which will aid in this process. In the meantime industrial designers from Valve bring us a controller with sixteen re-mapable buttons.
Touchscreen & Dual Trackpads
The first noticeable aspect of the Steam Controller is the lack of dual analog sticks. Gamers worldwide have been very vocal about how physical input still matters in this day and age. And for many having Dual Analog sticks to their disposal means being able to control the game properly. The demand for joysticks compatible with Ios and Android smartphones, as well as accessories for 3DS is a testament to this point.
But worry not, Steam Controller replaces “traditional” analog sticks with two circular trackpads, each positioned there where one would normally expect an analog stick. These trackpads should offer very precise control and double up as clickable buttons. Even more impressive is that these touchpads house electro-magnets which offer the evolution of the rumble feature.
The aforementioned touchpads aren’t the only option for touch input, snugly between them sits a clickable high resolution touchscreen. Valve has set the goal to make every title from the Steam library playable with the new controller. “The Steam Community can use the configuration tool to create and share button presets for their favorite games. Players can choose from a list of the most popular configurations."
Valve will release more detailed specifications on both the Steam Prototype and this Steam Controller somewhere next week.
What do you think about the features of Valve’s controller? Like or hate reading my articles address me on twitter @italkgame or voice your thoughts in the comments below.
* Source: store.steampowered.com/livingroom
Yeah, every time I see that key binding for Portal 2, I just wonder what happened to the Jump button.
well the jump button is the space button and you can see it mapped to the left trackpad
Gamings going to cod damn heck
It’s like as if Valve is deliberately making this as a parody of gaming consoles. Too bad April fools is about 6 months away.
Can’t they just use analogs ffs?
well as the controller is modular by how they say its hackable im sure there will be traditional analog sticks that can be swapped in or out, im a bit iffy on the whole track-pad type controls but it may actually work really well? until then well just have to wait and find out. personally i am very excited with how steam is moving forward and introducing all these new concepts and “machines”.
As a set of stereo speakers, it looks kinda cool.
As a game controller… well let’s say it doesnt make me go all “HOLY *** I NEED TO PLAY GAMES AND NOW”
That made me smile veelk.
The official release has something to say about the touchpads can produce sounds due to the haptic feedback (rumble) ability to play audio waveforms.
I do wonder about the sound quality.
That looks ***, I rather use my console controllers. lol