Valve Reveal The Steam Controller

controller

Valve have revealed their final secret of the week and it’s not Half Life 3, sorry. Instead, it is the much rumoured Steam Box controller which does away with joysticks completely and replaces them with dual trackpads.

The trackpads allow far higher fidelity input than has previously been possible with traditional handheld controllers. Steam gamers, who are used to the input associated with PCs, will appreciate that the Steam Controller’s resolution approaches that of a desktop mouse.

The Steam Controller also includes haptic feedback which can be used to deliver in-game information such speed, boundaries or textures.

The now obligatory touch screen can be found in the centre of the pad whilst the buttons have been “placed based on frequency of use, precision required and ergonomic comfort.”

It’s certainly rather different, what do you think?

Source: Steam

30 Comments

  1. Haptic feedback, excellent, but im really not convinced by their marketing lines about the touch pads. I think I need to see it in action before getting excited about it.

  2. It’s absolutely beautiful. The idea of it. I might buy it if the steam is priced good enough

  3. It looks like Darth Vader’s crotch. Not that i’ve seen it up close or anything…

  4. I like that its innovative, hopefully its practical too.

  5. I wonder how long before someone paints one so it looks like your touching boobies. I guess within 2 minutes of them going on sale.

    • Haptic feedback in the centre… :P

  6. Playing Killzone on the Vita and I’m again reminded of how useful motion control can for aiming in shooters. Makes the whole joypad vs mouse+kbd less relevant.
    This ^ I don’t really believe in…

    • I know what you mean. The Gyro aiming in Uncharted was brilliant and much more tactile than mouse aiming.

    • I agree, i enjoyed that game but it’s helped immersion wise by having the screen central to your vision on your actual input device.
      The same concept wouldnt work if it was something you had in your hands to kill bad guys on a TV or monitor.

      Oh and there was a debate between Keyboard vS M+KbD? Must have been one sided ;)

  7. I like the idea, might work quite well for movement and aiming if they pin it just right. Wonder whether there will be any compatibility issues. That said, I can’t imagine making a smooth transition from a normal controller set up to this, I mean, look at where the x/y/a/b buttons are; curious.

    • Says all games on Steam work on the gamepad?

  8. Can’t get past that truly ugly design :/

    Absolute dire.

  9. Sold!!!

  10. That seems awful. But I’d like to try it out. Not sure if I’d be able to use it comfortably though since I can’t bend my right thumb and have limited movement with it.

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