Valve’s new Steam Controller aims to entice a broader field of PC players, which I fear already includes me

Anyone who appreciated the weirdness of the archetypal Steam Controller – and it inactive has its fans, contempt ceasing accumulation successful 2019 – mightiness look astatine this caller mentation and deliberation "Oi, that’s conscionable a Steam Deck with the surface chopped out." An accusation to which Valve, 1 suspects, mightiness respond by dilatory leaning forwards, eyes truthful wide they lucifer the aged version’s trackpads, staring the progressively frightened sceptic successful the look and whispering: "Yes."

Except the caller Steam Controller has much to it than simply transplanting the Deck inputs to a homebound gamepad. Having squeezed, caressed, and connected a mates of occasions astir dropped it connected the level of Valve HQ past month, I tin archer it’s already boding good not conscionable arsenic a controller for mouse-minded PC games, but arsenic a wide intent pad for everything else.

This was, admittedly, the point. I ne'er got the impression, from the Valve engineers and designers I spoke to, that the institution considers the aged Steam Controller a washout, adjacent arsenic they revive the conception simultaneously with a caller Steam Machine - antecedently 1 of PC hardware's astir tragic tales. The prevailing perception, 1 evidently shared with galore owners, is that it did its occupation of making mouse-style controls much readily disposable to those who played distant from their desks. If anything, its occupation was that it was a tad too specialised, lacking location comforts similar a 2nd analogue instrumentality oregon adjacent accepted look fastener placements. Thus, it ne'er challenged much accepted designs for the attraction of platformer, twin-stick shooter, oregon warring crippled players.

This caller Steam Controller is, therefore, astir being each things to each gamepaddists. The apical fractional is determination betwixt a Steam Deck and the PS5 Dualsense, with a semi-symmetrical dual instrumentality layout and enarthrosis triggers that are nary longer confined wrong integrative housing. Below, determination are 2 trackpads, squared similar the Deck’s but somewhat bigger and angled for comfort. A quartet of rear buttons (yet different constituent borrowed from Valve’s handheld) rounds retired the input count, but everything you truly request to cognize astir this controller is evident from 1 look astatine the front: it does regular gamepad stuff, and it does precision trackpad stuff. Boxes ticked, bases covered.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun

Most importantly, it works. I was ne'er an OG Steam Controller person but there’s thing precise earthy – intuitive, adjacent – astir being capable to instantly power betwixt treble thumbsticks and the trackpads, depending connected what’s being played. A spot of familiar, side-scrolling instrumentality enactment successful Hollow Knight: Silksong earlier thumbing the close pad to swiftly occurrence my subject weapon successful Portal 2. Lovely. Neither strategy gets successful the mode of the other, and portion the Steam Controller arsenic a full mightiness person slabbish proportions, it’s an atrocious batch much comfy than it looks. It's light, too. As in, "this mightiness drift retired of my hands and lodge itself successful 1 of Gabe Newell's ceiling fans if I don’t grip it" light.

Rather than transcript the Steam Deck controls wholesale, Valve's engineers person made respective method improvements, particularly implicit the basal Deck. The trackpad haptics person the warmer, finer, little buzzy consciousness arsenic the motors successful the upgraded Steam Deck OLED, and the D-pad has been reworked to enactment centred much reliably portion delivering crisper diagonal presses; the second is simply a subtle quality but, astatine slightest to my thumb, a tangible one. I adjacent pulled my Deck OLED retired of my container to check.

Best of each are the thumbsticks, which person a similar, super-grippy consciousness to the Deck OLED’s, but person gained TMR (Tunneling Magnetoresistance) sensors. These enactment connected akin principles to Hall Effect sticks and keys, utilizing magnets alternatively than mechanisms to observe instrumentality movements, and are successful mentation adjacent much responsive, power-efficient, and little prone to instrumentality drift malfunctions implicit time. In practice, I recovered they besides alteration an utterly tiny deadzone, allowing for Melinoë to marque noticeably sharper turns successful Hades 2.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun

This attraction to item besides extends to the gyro controls, yet different method for camera-shunting that the caller Steam Controller accounts for. On, for instance, the Steam Deck, gyro aiming is activated by either pressing a fastener oregon leaving a thumb connected 1 of the capacitive inputs, namely the sticks oregon the trackpads. The Steam Controller goes further by adding capacitive sensors successful the close grip, truthful you tin question it freely without needing to absorption connected thumb positioning – you’re activating gyro controls simply by virtuousness of holding it normally. This, too, feels pleasantly natural, and arsenic idiosyncratic who’s sold connected the benefits of gyro aiming but has ne'er developed the musculus representation for it, it’s a diagnostic I’m particularly keen to get much acquainted with.

So overmuch astir the Steam Controller seems to person been, similar these thumbstick and gyro tweaks, simply thought through. It unsurprisingly works with the Steam Machine and the Steam Frame, Valve’s caller hybrid VR headset, but Bluetooth and USB transportation options guarantee wider compatibility. The rear buttons are raised, truthful they’re easier to property than those of the Steam Deck. The charging puck tin drawback onto the backmost of the Steam Controller magnetically, truthful you don’t adjacent request to beryllium paying peculiarly adjacent attraction erstwhile you spell to link them (and, connected the taxable of power, the approximate 35-hour uptime is astir 3 times that of the PS5 pad).

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun

However, arsenic compellingly arsenic it combines Gen 1 distinctiveness with straightforward crowd-pleasery, it’s important astatine this signifier to find what the caller Steam Controller is not. It is not, for one, a genuinely high-end (or, successful controller lingo, 'Elite') gamepad. Its triggers aren’t adjustable oregon adaptive, and neither the look buttons nor the improved D-pad person the satisfying, rodent button-esque clickiness of the Razer Wolverine V3 Pro I usage astatine home. There’s besides a acheronian broadside to the aforementioned lightness: it’s comfortable, but besides feels somewhat insubstantial, with elemental plastics alternatively of nicely rubberised grip textures.

At the aforesaid time, I couldn't accidental it feels outright cheap. There’s conscionable excessively overmuch emotion being lavished connected the inputs, which is, ultimately, what a gamepad is for. In fact, the small Steam Controller is by immoderate borderline – nary disrespect meant to the caller Steam Machine oregon Frame – the portion of upcoming Valve hardware that I astir powerfully expect wanting to bargain for myself, which is simply a batch deeper down the hype spread than I ever managed with the past one.

As with the Machine and Frame, there’s nary pricing oregon merchandise day info connected the Steam Controller yet, though they’re each broadly aiming for aboriginal 2026.