The Steam Controller Is Valve's Third Announcement

Can you CoD with it?

What happens when you have to use the "sticks" and the buttons at the same time? The button placement seems awkward.

I'll believe it works better when I see it in action, but right now I'm skeptical. They didn't address my biggest concern with playing PC games on a TV. which is typing. Moving a cursor around a virtual keyboard is not solution, haptic or not. If this thing doesn't eliminate the need for a keyboard and mouse, what's the point? If Valve is going to ask developers to reconfigure games like Civilization for these touchpads why don't they just port it to PS4 or Xbox One? I know Paradox came out in support of the OS, but how exactly are you supposed to play CK2 using this controller without redesigning the in-game UI?

Uh, not even a close comparison - this doesn't have a massive screen and pretend to double as a (poor) tablet. It's likely going to be far cheaper also and has way more uses.

Although, that button config... That looks awful for hack and slash games. Guess I'll wait and see.

I don't have a clue how that controller will work out.

That thing looks weird as hell. I hope it's cool.

Even a primarily console player, I know that mouse and keyboard is absolutely the more precise option. I honestly can't tell if you're trolling or not.

You know what? I like the look of it. "Fuck the system!" is Valve's motto right now and that's what they are doing by making a controller that doesn't conform to what has been established in the past. Trying new things will not hurt them in the long run.

I'd be interested to try it. I think the buttons on the back are a nice addition, I kind of wish sony or microsoft had done that, since most of my fingers just sit back there doing nothing, while my thumbs do most of the work. I dunno about the touchpads, but at least it will solve deadzone problems and better haptic feedback is super enticing and as much as I tend to dislike using laptop trackpads etc, I think Valve have enough sense to know if something like that is shit or not.

No d-pad is a real bummer to me personally though.

The best games on tablets are the ones where they simulate joysticks....

Looks horrible and awkward; but that could easily just be the bias of being so used to thumbsticks for so long. Change is scary.

Hesitantly optimistic, not a fan of touchpads as "precision control," but it's entirely possible the combination of having separate trackpads and haptic feedback changes that. I'm certainly interested in giving it a chance.

I was expecting it be nothing more than a reconfiguration of the xbox controller, since PC games already have so much support for that. Kinda glad to see they decided to gamble on something new and unique instead.

That is horrific...i remember 3rd party SNES pads that looked like this thing, please tell me we can use 360 and PS4 games on this OS? I am not using...that

Turn that shit around and it looks like Deadmaus

Can't really be any worse than sticks when it comes to replicating M&KB functionality.

@michaelferrari said:

Well the difference is that it's much easier to imagine what playing a WII-U is like without ever doing so. It's a fairly standard controller with a big tablet in the middle. It's essentially a gameboy in the place of a controller.

This on the other hand is a twist on technology which already exists but it's very difficult to judge how it will perform without testing it. It is technology which succeeds and fails on refinement.

Where are the face buttons? WHERE ARE THE FACE BUTTONS?

eeeeehhh...eeeeerrrr....uuuuuhhhhh....ummmmmmmm...hhhrrrrrmmmmm....well I guess we'll...uh..I guess we'll see?

will they make a red one call it meatboy edition

It has 3 touch pads? Half Life 3 confirmed?

This looks like a pretty novel controller if it works right. Nice to see Valve continuing to do their own thing.

Man I don't know about this, I mean controllers are practically perfect as they are, I don't see any need to change what works.

Gotta agree with this. With this kinda button placement it's pretty much impossible to make a game where you're always in control of one stick, which in most action games is pretty essential. Playing your standard shooter with this controller will basically mean that there will be moments where you're forced to stand completely still.

I'm certain that Valve had the proper cash to invest into some exceptional R&D for this controller so it HAS to be good.

Right?

Their name carries with it a large amount of legitimacy and trust among their audience. I'd say there's a good reason for that, as well.

I'm going to hold my judgments until I've tried it, however.

Whoa... That controller is funky... I mean funky!

This seems like something Nintendo would make.

Agreed.

well yes, that is something called trust and this is how it functions. Nintendo broke trust by making a sub par controller in the wiimote, valve has proven they aren't dumb. Only an idiot rips something "to shreds" when they don't even understand how its going to work.

@michaelferrari: Because Valve has a very good track record. Nintendo alienated a lot of people with the Wii, and bungled their Wii U marketing something awful, so that gives people plenty of reason to doubt. Valve has done nothing but good for gaming and gamers, so people want to trust them.

Not every company is equal, and Valve has definitely earned the respect they're getting.

Three parts to the announcement - half life 3 confimred

Srsly tho, This is weird. Valve gets a pass way more than most, but this whole controller-with-no-buttons isn't very impressive - it looks neat, but probably feels terrible. I can't imagine their Imagineers are so drunk on the Koolaid that they can't tell a good controller from a bad one, but how is "haptic feedback" more or equal to actual tactic feel? Analog sticks aside, no buttons is another major bummer for me. Now more than ever I want one of the 300 demo/beta units - this is something I need to know and try for myself.

This looks stupid as fuck.

/kneejerk reaction

There are actually two buttons on the back of the controller. 4 triggers/shoulder buttons, 2 buttons on the back, and the 2 buttons of the trackpads themselves make 8 buttons without moving your thumbs from the track pads. If you lift one off, you get the two buttons by the screen, and the screen itself, which makes around 10, which is roughly equivalent to what you get on a 360 controller. The buttons just happen to be in really strange places. I'd have to hold one to know if it would work for me, but it might require some serious re-training to use well, which might be what kills it.

As far as the track pads go, I dunno. That very well could be a huge mistake. I'll wait until someone whose opinion I trust gets their hands on it and runs it through its paces. At the very least, I doubt it will be as catastrophically bad as the OUYA's controller.

That's not meant to replace a 360 controller, so that's not my issue, but how well will it work with mouse and keyboard stuff? I'm willing to accept that aiming is better than with sticks, but will people's performance on CoD or CounterStrike be comparable? More to the point, is it even an option for stuff like DOTA? Beause if it isn't, it means that you still need a desk-based PC somewhere.

And the announcement is surprisingly vague about that. They talk about casual and turn-based stuff, but it doesn't sound like they expect hardcore mousing to be a thing you can do with it.

I'm really interested to see what new types of games can be developed because of this.

This controller is like some weird middle ground thing. It looks like it could be better than a 360 controller for first person shooters (yet not as good as a mouse), and worse for everything else.

Damn that thing's ugly.

This controller is designed for RTS and other Keyboard-Mouse heavy games that current crop of controllers simply cannot be mapped onto. From the looks of it you won't be able to play digital movement heavy games like Super meatboy but playing SC 2 while sitting on a couch might now be a possibility.

It's definitely different. If it’s better is something else...

Looks like a modern home boombox where you connect your iphone or ipod to the top. Not feeling the design but it doesn't matter because this stuff isn't for me. I already have a high end PC in my living room with a wireless keyboard/mouse and a controller.

How anyone could argue that people have good reason to trust that a software company would be good at producing controllers is beyond me. It's never been their area of expertise and we have countless examples of the problems that arise when traditionally software companies force themselves into making hardware; all those red-ringed Xbox 360s and broken-after-a-year Rock Band 1 controllers say hi, and those were from companies with a lot more capital than Valve.

Who knows how well it will work but my God it's fuck ugly.

#nope

this been tired few times before with not much success normally with left analog being replaced with touch pad. but i have try one out before i can judge it. but do hate fat legs on it.

This thing looks weird, but so did at first the Nes controller, and the Playstation controller, and the Xbox controller, and so on, so I wont make any judgment calls until I try one.

I'm 100% behind the first two announcements... this third one, not so much. It's pretty cool, but I'm not sure I need it. I play my keyboard games with a keyboard, and my gamepad games with a gamepad. There has never been a scenario in my life where I said: "Oh, I wish I could be playing this Civ game with a gamepad!"...

"I make all other controllers obsolete!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUqV_u_JgLQ

It's made by Valve. That means I already believe it works better than any other controller in existence.

I'm not that interested in playing pc games on my tv, I like the way I have things set up now. But I could easily see myself using this controller when for certain games instead of the 360 controller I use now.

Valve design has always been top of the class and I believe they must have put a ton of research into getting to this point. So if this is what they're showing us now then it must work beautifully.