Real steam controller needs more buttons and another joystick though. When many games are designed around a standard controller, the steam controller can be awkward to use.
Cool, I like the capacitive sticks, but not what I’m waiting for. I want a Steam controller 2 that’s a Deck without the touchscreen. Anything less and I’m not really interested
What really sets the Steam Controller (and the Steam Deck's control layout) apart from the market are the dual touchpads and dynamically/easily programmable buttons. The above just looks like a reskinned XBox controller, and, if I read the article right, it needs a "companion app" to get full functionality out of the controller.
I hope that they at least made sure that the companion app works on the Steam Deck.
From what I understand, steam input has full support for it as well. As in it will show the controller in steam, and let you program back buttons/capacitive sticks/etc.
I think you only need the companion app if you aren't using steam.
Not having the touchpads is a big downside, but this still fills a huge niche that the others dont. My Xbox elite controller is cool and all, but has neither a gyro nor capacitive joysticks. My dualsense has a gyro, but no capacitive touch so I need to activate it with a button hold or leave it always on.
The Xbox and PS5 controller also don't treat the paddles as independent buttons by default, so you need an extra layer of software on PC that allows mapping those buttons to arbitrary inputs. Steam Input can overwrite this sometimes, but it's very inconsistent on a game + hardware basis. The companion app is a concerning "feature". Hopefully it's just marketing trying to make up a fancy phrase for "hardware driver".
You're still better off with something from 8Bit-do at that price. If they included trackpads and vibration it would've been a nice Steam Controller v2.
Yeah the track pads are so cool! I don't use mine much, but for RPGs with a lot of abilities being able to setup little touch menus is indispensable. Considering the deck has the same interface it makes complete sense for docked mode to have an equivalent device.
While I'd like it to have rumble and trackpads, I pre-ordered one (to Canada).
I just want the xbox button layout with proper motion controls, which it seems like this delivers on, and with a bonus of actual back buttons (that can be mapped in Steam, unlike when controllers emulate Xbox or switch controllers)
Both the back paddles and gyro are things that are great, and every gamepad should have them, but there's almost no compatibility with anything on PC.
Most I've ever seen is being able to change a button to a back paddle. Not even remapping a key, just a face or shoulder button. I swap it with the stick press buttons (L&R3). But it'd be great to be able to actually remap keys.
You can technically stream your game to your deck, and it will work as a controller. If you have the OLED deck you can use something like magicblack Decky plugin to turn off the screen while playing
Touch capacitance on the stick is a gyro-must for me, so im happy to finally see a controller with this. actually just ordered this from amazon japan, didnt think it would actually get a US release.
I don't know how many people vibe with this, but the PS5's high definition super Hitachi wand rumble or whatever is literally my favorite thing about it. I can't imagine going for no vibration at all.
I've preordered it. I have a few hori controllers. Some are worse than others. Even though its design is pretty much identical to their switch controller, I honestly want to give it a try. My goto controllers lately have been the PS5 controller and the Gamsir g7 se. I have been playing everything recently on Bazzite so it's been fun to try out different controllers for different games.