Give me the Steam Deck layout sans screen and I’ll buy several.
So fucking fed up being charged out the ass for a few extra buttons and/or shitty build quality.
I went through RMAing SIX god damn Xbox elite 2 controllers before just giving up and getting my CC agency involved to get my money back.
I just want a controller with back pedals and touchpads for mouse emulation. Is that so hard?
I’d be surprised if they weren’t making exactly that. It’d also give devs an easier way to test controlling with a deck without having to buy one
Give me the Steam Deck layout sans screen and I’ll buy several.
This, they should include gyro too ideally if that doesn’t go without saying
I never got into gyro controls. What are the pros for you?
I find it works really well (as a combo with stick) for FPS games on the steamdeck, feels a bit closer to mouse & keyboard in precision
I really need to give this another try. Any games you’ve tested this with in which gyro aim works particularly well?
I used to play a lot of Fallout 4 with gyro aiming on the Steam Controller, there was a lot of downtime between fights and gunplay didn’t require perfect precision, which was great for learning how the controller felt. I’d find that I’d sit back with my hands on my lap, tilting the controller very slightly up and down for vertical aim and unconsciously using my foot to rotate the chair for horizontal. Once I got used to how it worked (including setting the gyro to only activate while the left trigger was held and fine-tuning the sensitivity) it became natural. My body just kind of figured it all out in the most comfortable way.
I’d recommend playing 2 types of games to get used to it.
First a single player FPS with gyro working on some kind of switch, if you have a Steam Controller, this would be when you are touching the right touchpad, otherwise with a PS5 controller for example maybe it’s always on, but when you touch the touchpad it disables.
This allows you to recentre the controller when you need to so you’re not twisting around in your chair.
Second play a third person action game with some kind of shooting and enable the gyro only when you pull the button to aim, usually left trigger, this will help you fine tune your aim and get used to that enhancement. I really enjoyed Horizen Zero Dawn like this and Alien: Fire team Elite.
Nintendo’s work is solid on the Switch. With all the gyro control, I got so used to it that whenever I’m using my Xbox controller on Steam I instinctively tilt the controller for control. Once you’re used to stick for general direction and tilt for specifics it feels natural.
For me personally, it’s just a nice to have for games that require it. I remember pulling out my steam controller a few times when Breath of the Wild needed motion controls.
I’ve managed to use it as a steering wheel for the old NFS:MW
The original Steam Controller has gyro, so I can’t imagine they’d leave it out of a successor.
It’s wild to me that somehow the elite controllers are worst than their cheaper brothers. I’ve owned both series. Both sucked hard.
Not to defend Microsoft, but I haven’t had any issues with my Elite 2 controller, and I’ve had it for a couple of years at least.
My left bumper stopped working consistently on mine. I never have issues with my other controllers.
I’ve definitely heard complaints about the Elite bumpers, so I’m not saying that isn’t an issue. For whatever reason though mine has held up fine. I don’t know if I got lucky or what. I’m pretty careful with it, but my 2 year old is not so it’s had some falls from him grabbing it off my desk. I have had issues with the standard controller geting the bumpers jammed after a fall though for sure.
My grips started peeling after close to three years of heavy use. A tube of silicone glue fixed it right up.
This 100%. Personally I’m happy with the build quality on my Elite 2, but I hate that it requires Windows 10+ to update the firmware. And it really needs a trackpad.
But with hall effect, and slightly more angled triggers for better ergonomics since it doesnt have to be flat. And… and…
if it ends up being like the steam deck layout, they’ll probably just fuse the touch screens into one larger one in the center of the controller, towards the bottom. At that point, it would probably just be pretty similar to the playstation controller, but with slightly more questionable ergonomics, or maybe a more usable touchscreen.
I get the cheap GameSir controllers and they work fine. I’ve got probably 10 of them running around and I need to grab two more to replace my dying Stadia controllers. None have given me a moment of trouble.
That said, I’m not picking up two more if there’s a new steam controller coming. I’ll wait. I don’t usually need more than 8 at once so I can put it on the back burner for now until I need to host a holiday.
I don’t usually need more than 8 at once
This implies that sometimes you do—what situations are coming up where you need 8+ controllers?
3 mini PCs, 4 players each, round robin Mario Kart tournament.
I semi-regularly need between 6 and 8. When I throw a barbecue there’s live music, a large selection of meats with plenty to snack on while everyone is waiting for the brisket and ribs to finish up, vegetarian options that are more than just sides or salads, vegan options if any of my vegan friends stop by, games like darts and cornhole, video games, drinks, and general fuckery.
I like to do it big and I’ve got the means and space to do that.
steam deck shell with a slot for your phone or a power bank or a slice of toast if that’s what you want
I hope they improve on the following
- The touchpads and paddle “clicks” are way too noisy
- An actual D-pad
- ABXY buttons less mushier
- USB-C port for charging
- Similar to Steam Deck layout
- A place to store the USB dongle inside the controller when not in use
- Better rumble
I switched to an 8bitdo controller with hall effect joysticks since, but I do miss the touchpad’s precision for FPS.
I’d base all expectations on Steam Deck not Controller v1. You can already see the lessons learned in the deck.
The clicky-ness of the touchpad, paddles, shoulder buttons etc. is one of the things if absolutely love about the OG Steam Controller
Their clickyness in themselves is good and responsive, it’s just that it’s too noisy to my taste.
The only reason I stopped using mine was because the membrane that makes the ABXY feel mushy eventually went and I couldn’t find a suitable replacement.
If they put in some sort of mechanical switches there so that this couldn’t happen, I would probably never use anything else.
Agreed with all of this except for similarity to Deck (if the touchpads are squircles I will lose my mind), but my main concern is the shoulder buttons. Pressing shoulder buttons on the SC is literally manual labor and sounds like cracking a glow stick. Hopefully they’ll be more like the Deck or any other modern gamepad.
- Native support for games - have it use the Xbox or PlayStation profile
- Don’t require that abysmal Big Picture mode for remapping, custom layouts, etc.
Onboard remapping profiles would be nice, I use them on my 8bitdo controller and I can toggle them on-the-fly.
I personally remap the paddles mostly, but still.
Yes to all this. I picked up my original Steam Controller the other day and forgot just how crazy loud that thing is.
Why were you using haptic vibrations on touchpads? I switched them off the moment I discovered I can, they are really annoying
It feels like it’s missing something without rumble…
My day 1 ordered Steam Controller is still going strong but I’ve been constantly worrying about the day it dies. Can’t wait, if this rumour proves to be true.
Same here. I’m more worried about losing the USB Dongle.
It can be put into Bluetooth mode. Works just as well. As someone who lost their dongle
The latency on bluetooth mode is too high for a lot of retro games, unfortunately.
Me too! I literally keep it permanently in a portable usb hub so it’s harder to lose.
Mine had slid off the footrest I had stupidly placed it on overnight and I didn’t notice that so I sat down and jerked my computer chair forward, one wheel right into the controller. It’s crazy how much it broke, one side cracked, including the PCB and both the bumber and trigger on that side got badly deformed.
RIP friend, you were the best.
F
(mapped to X thanks to Steam Input)
I have mine still, dongle too, but it started constantly dropping the connection to the Steam Deck and I can’t figure out why.
Maybe this is how it dies, not with a bang but with a whimper.
Firmware up to date? I have no issues with mine although the range on the dongle is pretty weak which did cause it to drop connection but it went away completely after running a USB extension cable from my Deck’s dock so the dongle is closer to me when I’m sat on the sofa.
Thanks for the tip. I think I just assumed the firmware was up-to-date when I dusted it off and connected it to the Deck last year.
But I looked into it, found the batch file script that’s out there now that Valve doesn’t support firmware updates directly anymore, and ran the last firmware on it.
I have been trying it out and so far so good. Thanks again!
I have this issue too it’s from the board being dropped a lot / age. I bought an extra used controller and some 3d printed replacement shoulders and I’ve been able to fix them pretty well. Unfortunately there is no way to fix the board I wasn’t able to discern any kind of issue with the parts but I don’t have voltage schematic to figure out what might have went bad I suspect a capacitor or something. I still use them every day though they are great. I hate the new steam interface though cause they dropped a lot of advanced features
Seems like it may have been the firmware after all. I updated it and it seems to maintain a consistent connection now.
One of my best Goodwill finds ever was a near-mint Steam controller for 10$ to replace the one that the kids dropped playing LEGO Marvel. Honestly, it was a gift from the heavens and I absolutely will buy at least two on Day 1 because Valve hardware is always fucking great.
I’ve bought 4 steam controllers. I use two, and have two in backup as I assumed they wouldn’t make more, so u had to keep spares.
I envy you deeply. My biggest regret is not stocking up when they were really cheap. I just didn’t think Valve would stop making them. At least they never stopped supporting it!
I bought some used about 2 years ago. I think you can still find them if you keep looking for them.
On mine (ca. 2016) all the rubber has degraded to a slimy goo.
I really liked it but it doesn’t work as a controller on Android devices so it went for long periods of no use.
My Xbox Series X|S controllers however all have stick drift even though they’re much newer
Still using my Steam Controller every day, with two in reserve. By far my favorite gaming controller, simply because of those touchpads. I play a lot of turn-based strategy and doing it from the couch is sublime.
If Steam Controller 2 has touchpads and does something better than SC1, I’m probably in (dependent on pricing).
Next up please make a Steam Box. I just want a PS5/XSX equivalent with SteamOS.
And because I know people will say build a PC: No, I want a pre build smallish box with kinda certified hardware so I don’t have to worry about compatibility, cooling, drivers and all that stuff.
Or release a SteamOS image so I can install it on my gaming rig.
You can just use any Linux distro and start steam in big screen mode, I think steamOs is available but a bit too customized for the deck
Until then Bazzite seems to be what you’re looking for. Although any other Linux Distribution should work as well. I put OpenSUSE Tumbleweed on my Deck to have more customisation options.
You have it - it’s the Steam Deck.
Fair enough. You can just dock it to a tv, like switch.
But a console like box without the constraints the Deck has (thermals, power usage, size, weight, needing a screen) would still be a valid product offering.
I personally don’t like mobile gaming, but I do like a console experience.
I run steam deck with a dock but it’s closer to a switch than ps5 I guess. For what I play on a 1080 tv, with Elden ring being my heaviest title, it works perfectly.
I can see how a steam box that would deliver 4k on high end games would be awesome as well.
That’s a Steam Machine. The idea didn’t take off because it’s just a pre-built PC (and because they trusted other companies to do it for them). It’s a highly competitive market with very low margins.
When they announced the Deck they did recommend one particular small box as a development machine as it matched the Deck’s performance very closely. You might try looking for that. Although by now there are probably more powerful ones available for the same price.
I would commit some unspeakable acts if it meant Valve released a revised Steam Machine
As someone who has several mini PCs with HoloISO, I totally hope they put out an official box because I’ll replace all of mine. I’ll repurpose one of my current ones into something fun and give the others to some local nerd who wants to do nerd shit.
I agree. It would also be nice to use as a pc ala the mac mini.
ILL TAKE YOUR ENTIRE FUCKING STOCK
C’mon valve my wallet’s so heavy
Fuck yeah I don’t care how bad it is I’ll take six
Sweeeet
Duuuude
Sweet!
What does mine say!?
Mine two steam controllers are still used almost daily, but they are showing there age in wear and tear.
So please be as great as version 1. I need two new ones
Some functionality that keeps me using the Steam Controller has been touchpads for movement, quick gadget swapping with touchpads, quick 180s/gyro activation with touchpads.
I use it to play games like Doom Eternal, Left 4 Dead 2, Spin Rhythm XD, The Finals, etc.
Sadly I don’t find myself doing the same on the Steam Deck opting for the joysticks instead, since I don’t find the placement, smaller size, square versus circle, and flat surface versus concave offering the type of consistency that I use the touchpads for on the Steam Controller. It feels more a touchpad appropriate for slow paced games or just desktop navigation than optimal for the way I use the touchpads on the Steam Controller. And I don’t see Valve delivering on the touchpad end that I would like with the next Steam Controller with all the inputs it would be fitting in.
I hope it has 2 pads and 2 sticks, like the deck! The only think I didn’t like about the original was having to use the right pad instead of a stick.
Once you switch the stick to a DPad and use both touchpad it really opens up
Hope for Hall Effect joystick
Fingers crossed for Joystick #2
I hope the build quality is better on this one. My old one got worn out relatively quickly.
Probably just got a bad one tbh, I’ve had mine since 2015 and my wife still uses it almost every day (primarily for stardew valley) with zero issues. I sometimes use it on weekends so I know there’s still no issues with it
I was using it for Hollow Knight and sometimes Warframe so I might have been a little more intense with it. I think the issue was with the grip buttons.
