Interesting they basically made a dualshock controller with two trackpads instead of one. wonder why they kept the dual track pads?
This controller looks quite neat. The part I don’t like is, unless I’m mistaken, it requires steam and won’t work on its own.
From reviews, it sounds like it functions as a normal Xbox controller without Steam running to augment it. Most of the time. I heard Retro Arch reads it as a mouse and keyboard, which is how the old Steam controller worked.
I don’t think that’s true. From everything I’ve seen, it defaults to a mouse layout without steam
It’s crazy, I haven’t bought a console in a while, so I’ve actually never spent more than $50 on a single controller. That said, I already think I’m going to buy this.
I was really impressed when I used a steam controller at pax years ago, but didn’t end up pulling the trigger, my usb Xbox controller was good enough. But that controller has some significant stick drift now, and I have had situations where I really wished it was wireless.
Honestly, I just have a good feeling about this device. I don’t know if it’ll be as reliable as items like my Logitech mouse for instance, but I’m hoping it lives up to that.
Ah, small country life…
This item is not available for purchase in your region
Where you at?
Across the ditch from you (going by instance); NZ
i still have my original steam controler from 20 years ago, i am waiting for the steamframe, hope this means it will also come soon.
You gave me a mini heart attack, but I’m pretty sure you mean ~10 years ago.
yesterday feels like 20 years ago.
be nice. these are trying times
Its easy to do, especially recently, where it feels like theres a year of bullshit in the news every week.
Steamframes the one I’m most interested in. I missed out on the pandemic VR chat phenomenon, kinda hope the release re-ignites a little interest in that with folks.
What if it’s $2000
Originally, they said it would be less than $1,000
It only has 16GiB of LPDDR5 RAM, which is somewhere around $250 at currently inflated prices direct to consumers
So I’d think they’ll manage to keep it under $1,250
It won’t be. Maybe 1 999.
What if it’s 1999
That’d make for a bizurr summer
i will miss out on it again :)
Nice. I’ve been using an 8bitdo, but kinda struggled with my hybrid PC w/ Tv all the way over by the couch setup. A steam controller might be a little less wonky than using KDE connect on my phone
damn, I just use a wireless keyboard with a trackpad and media keys.
Wireless keyboard on knees and a little round table for my mouse here.
Or just a keyboard with a track pad built in.
https://www.amazon.com/CZUR-Bluetooth-Keyboard-Multi-Device-Rechargeable/dp/B0GQ8SNSV6
not for gaming, of course, just for navigating the OS. keep the controller for t3h ga3mz
Steam’s webshop servers are going to fucking explode.
The last time I saw something put a hurting on Steam’s servers was the release of Silksong. I don’t think this is going to crash things too hard because they’ll sell out in an hour.
More recently, the early access of Slay the Spire 2 hit them pretty hard too.
$150 CAD. Ouch.
Could have been much worse tbh. The Razer Wolverine V3 Pro costs roughly double that, for example 🤷🏻
yikes!
And I will be buying one at 10:01am.
And by 10:00.1 it will be sold out.
10:00.1
ten hours, zero minutes, and one tenth of a minute (6 seconds)
or ten minutes, zero seconds, and one tenth of a second?
either way fuck the scalpers that are gonna try to ruin this for everyone
I’ll be trying, but there’s a 99% chance it’s not available in my country 😭
It was the same for the original Steam controller, and the Deck on launch… Even the Index is still pretty hard to obtain.
Yeah Valve doesn’t ship to NZ. I have a Steam Controller 1 and have previously had an Index as well, but I had to freight forward to get them, and I seem to recall needing some trickery of changing the Steam account to another region to get it to work.
I looked into that with the Index but the price was horrendous… I really hope MightyApe or PBTech do some importing this time around.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/04/steam-controller-the-ars-technica-review
Strange review that fixates on the price, which doesn’t seem that high to me.
$100 is a ripoff for a controller.
Signed, A dumbass who paid $200 for a dual sense edge, lmao
$100 is fairly steep, but I’ll shell out a bit extra for quality. My Xbox controllers have lasted me years, but at least one of the recurring problems I’ve seen with them after so much use could be remedied by the better tech in the sticks in these things.
At ~1 hour after the post I’m unable to add to my wish list from my Steam mobile app, indicates “Reservation Servers are busy, please try again” without response.
I’ve had it wishlisted since it was announced, may be a region thing?
all set, resolved itself
May the Fourth be with us all.
Control, control! You must learn control!
Feels like the track pads add a lot to the size of the controller. The ad says its good for FPS games, is there any other good reason to use them?
Games that are in designed for only Mouse & Keyboard
But I mostly plan to use it to control as mouse keyboard on my desktop.
My PC is hooked to my TV. Using a mouse on a couch fukin sucks. A track ball is alright but it has to be wireless and you still need a keyboard. This solves both issues.
I use it for games designed for controller too. Like Pragmata preferring the touchpads for turning the camera around over joystick, and gyro to aim.
I’ve found virtual/radial menus to be a nice use. In games that have more keyboard bindings than controller options you can bind keys to a virtual menu. For example I could never abuse quicksave/quickload on a controller in New Vegas before.
Essentially it’s a controller designed to get a decent to excellent result playing anything on steam, part of that is you need a mouse and keyboard. I’ve used the ones on my steam deck a bunch, and they’re pretty good at most anything.
There are lots of reasons. The primary one is for games that simply don’t support controllers. Think Anno or LoL or Civ.
I wouldn’t even say they’re good for FPS. Mouse is still gonna be king for that.
They’re also infinitely programmable and devs can even use them like any other input, like a weapon or inventory wheels.
I wouldn’t even say they’re good for FPS. Mouse is still gonna be king for that.
I use them to play FPS like The Finals. My set up being gyro being activated when I touch the right touchpad, edge to edge swipe of the touchpad doing a 180, and clicking the edges/center for 5 different inputs.
Gyro and touchpads having mouse mapped to them so no aim assist. Not sure how the ergonomics of the controller will be though for FPS, since I didn’t find them comfortable to use on the Deck due to touchpads being lower than the OG Steam Controller. But, some people don’t have issue with them, so it is possible.
Yeah I didn’t say it wasn’t possible. It’s just not ideal.
It’s not ideal for mouse gamers, but gyro is ideal for controller gamers with it being the best option available that makes it possible for controller gamers to play fps games without aim assist vs mouse players.
Though only reason I mentioned possible when it comes to the touchpad use on the new Steam Controller is since it is up in the air until I actually get to try it to see if it will be ideal to use as a touchpad gyro controller like my original Steam Controller with the different ergonomics it has.
I’m looking at this controller more as gamepad exclusive gamer than a PC user that only sometimes uses the controller and mouse for other games on PC. Guess more similar to being from the perspective of a console player with many opting for controller even after a game gets mouse support.
let me share how I use the trackpads: in most games, I customize the left one to behave as the left joystick, like really detailed custom controls, and then the left joystick becomes my shortcut hub: layers, action wheel, you name it.
The right track pad is straight up mouse, I customize sensitivity and pair it with gyro. Let’s use deadlock as example, this level of customization allows me to play such fast paced shooter easily from my couch. Last year I used AI ( don’t shoot) to build a small tool that in a nutshell turns the steam deck in a steam controller when connected via USB to my living room PC, now that the control is almost here I don’t need the workaround anymore. i use the track pads primarily and the joysticks as secondary controllers
Finally
I really wish they had either made it modular or made a variation that had Xbox style stick layout, I find the dualshock layout with the side-by-side joysticks uncomfortable, would’ve been the endgame controller.
