Valve's Steam Controller Is Dead (theverge.com) 48
Valve has confirmed to The Verge that it will stop making its Steam Controller. Currently, the gamepads are on sale for just $5 -- 90 percent off its original price -- but once these controllers are gone, Valve doesn't plan to make any more. From the report: [W]hile I can't recommend it wholeheartedly like I did when Valve discontinued its amazing Steam Link wireless HDMI cable-in-a-box, I will say that $13 is a pretty excellent price if you ever plug your PC into your television, or sling your PC games wirelessly to the Steam Link app on your phone and need an accurate solution. That's because the controller, originally introduced in 2013 as part of Valve's failed Steam Machines initiative, is one of the most fully customizable gamepads ever made, and perhaps the only one to offer mouse-like pinpoint precision. That's because it uses a pair of trackpads, complete with tiny solenoid actuators for haptic feedback, so you can emulate a mouse or trackball. Plus, there are paddles around back for crouching, jumping, strafing, you name it without needing to take your thumbs off those trackpads.
But that's just the beginning. Thanks to Valve's robust configuration software, the Steam Controller has developed something of a cult following with thousands of gamers uploading their custom configurations for their entire game libraries on Steam. It's not uncommon to fire up a game and find dozens of fancy profiles that place the game's functions at your fingertips plus add entirely new control modes. One common modifier is to hold down a button to switch the entire gamepad into a gyroscopic aiming mode, not only readying your character's weapon, but slowing down your aiming sensitivity while allowing you to physically shift the controller a small amount to line up a shot using its built-in gyroscope. [...] I doubt I'm actually going to convince you to buy a Steam Controller if you've never been sold on the idea before. (Plus, paying $8 for shipping seems a bit much.) But I'm keeping mine around as a piece of gaming history, and I'm a little tempted to buy a second just in case I ever lose its USB dongle.
But that's just the beginning. Thanks to Valve's robust configuration software, the Steam Controller has developed something of a cult following with thousands of gamers uploading their custom configurations for their entire game libraries on Steam. It's not uncommon to fire up a game and find dozens of fancy profiles that place the game's functions at your fingertips plus add entirely new control modes. One common modifier is to hold down a button to switch the entire gamepad into a gyroscopic aiming mode, not only readying your character's weapon, but slowing down your aiming sensitivity while allowing you to physically shift the controller a small amount to line up a shot using its built-in gyroscope. [...] I doubt I'm actually going to convince you to buy a Steam Controller if you've never been sold on the idea before. (Plus, paying $8 for shipping seems a bit much.) But I'm keeping mine around as a piece of gaming history, and I'm a little tempted to buy a second just in case I ever lose its USB dongle.
Purchased them (Score:5, Informative)
It's cheap enough just to get a pair of them, the fact I can have precision pointing on a game controller is good enough for me. I hate regular game controllers, my characters always act like they're drunk, but I also don't want to sit in the couch with a plank just to hold my keyboard/mouse. If it aims like my trackball does, from a couch, that's good enough for me.
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Wireless trackballs, active USB cables... you can have your trackball on the couch. I've been using the same logitech trackman wheel T-BB18 for years now, occasionally replacing the microswitches to keep it going. They made a newer version that's wireless only, #donotwant
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Yup, I moved too slowly. Awesome controller, even with the reported build issues. I would have bought a bagfull if I could have. Apparently some other folks had the same idea.
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Huh, I must've made it in just under the wire... of course, we'll see if and when I get an actual shipping notice.
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They're coming in and out of stock. They were available again a few minutes ago, but since the shipping was another 10EUR I decided against it. It's not really worth that much to me if it's going to be collecting dust like the other controllers I already have.
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And it's gone. I don't really need it as I either play with a KB & Mouse or in VR (and have some old 360 controllers around that I hardly ever use) but for $5 I was willing to give it a shot even if itsucks, just for the novelty. Maybe they'll get it back in stock but at this price they're probably all gone already.
Dual trackpads was a dumb idea (Score:4, Insightful)
Twin sticks have dominated because they are great. Sony really nailed it with the Dual Shock. Microsoft's Xbox 360 controllers have been an enormously successful follower. And they are basically the standard for PC-connected gamepads. Even games which have nothing whatsoever to do with an Xbox are designed to work with them. And the ones that aren't (and even many which are) generally let you remap controls, so controller programmability is largely unnecessary.
I'm surprised they kept selling them for so long.
Re:Dual trackpads was a dumb idea (Score:4, Informative)
I'd say it was a pretty damn ingenious idea, actually. Just the market didn't take to them.
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I'd say it was a pretty damn ingenious idea, actually. Just the market didn't take to them.
If it had been ingenious, the market would have taken to them. We knew already that the market didn't want them, because people didn't buy the SEMC Xperia Play. At least, not in any significant numbers.
Joysticks are good because they offer feedback, and make centering trivial. The only bad thing about them is that they are almost all made with pots and not optical sensors, so when they fail they jitter at center. But the stick assemblies in twin stick controllers are easy and cheap to replace if you've got
If Valve had backed the Steambox it woulda worked (Score:2)
Remember that twinsticks work because games are balanced for them. Call of Duty is a cake walk with mouse & keyboard if you're playing on consoles. Microsoft had some decent amateurs go up against pro Halo players once and the pros got slaughtered.
Had the Steam Box taken off we'd have seen games balanced for the Steam Controller, ones that were built for it's strength. But Valve wasn't interested in hardware they
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Remember that twinsticks work because games are balanced for them. Call of Duty is a cake walk with mouse & keyboard if you're playing on consoles.
Yeah, but a user with a mouse or trackball is also going to slaughter most users of the Steam controller.
Had the Steam Box taken off we'd have seen games balanced for the Steam Controller, ones that were built for it's strength.
Which would still be inferior to a mouse or trackball. Now that we have optical mice that work on couches, and laser mice that work anywhere but a glass table, there's really no need to screw with trackpads. And that was true when they brought it out.
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The aiming trackpad on the Steam controller replicates a trackball, including inertia.
It bombed because it's limited to Steam. If you try to use it outside of Steam, the functionality is severely limited. Basically a simple mapping of the buttons to buttons on other controllers, and the trackpad to a mouse (no inertia, little/no control of acceleration). To get all the awesome customizations, you
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it's the fact that you can tune the SC to the extreme that made it fail.
i go as far to say that it's not only 'can' but rather a 'must' tune, as the defaults almost are never perfect.
this means spending some time with each game to get the controller working perfect just like _you_ want, even using community shared configs i sometimes still fiddle around a little bit with the sensetivity or remap something that works better for _me_.
what most people want is to pick up a controller and play, for that the SC i
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The market also seems to require aim assist to make twin sticks viable in some games...
Trackpads were meant to give more precision and I think they do. Mouse and keyboard and still the best option for games that require precision aiming but the Steam Controller was an interesting runner up.
Re:Dual trackpads was a dumb idea (Score:4, Informative)
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I still can't believe Valve was the only company interested in trying to make FPS couch controls better.
A number of companies sell a left-hand controller that you can pair with a laser mouse or trackball (as you like) in order to get a good set of FPS controls that are multiple location friendly. They've usually got a D-pad plus a reasonable number of traditional keys. Couch gaming input is a fully solved problem. If anything is missing, it's a convenient, cheap, and stowable mount for joysticks and racing wheels. There are some available solutions, but I haven't seen anything that's all of those things. I'm
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Steam controller was also utter garbage at shooters. Because mouse and keyboard exist.
Sure, it's a tiny bit better than twin sticks. But against mouse and keyboard users, you're going to lose just as badly.
If you want a couch shooter experience, get a couch keyboard and mouse combo. Those exist, and they alone make steam controller utterly obsolete for shooters.
Sticks for aiming are a dumb idea (Score:2)
The sticks (descendants of the old analog joysticks we used in the 1980s) are limi
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"There's a 1:1 correlation between mouse position on your desk and the mouse pointer position on the screen. "
Not by default on WIndows: https://www.howtogeek.com/3217... [howtogeek.com]
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"There's a 1:1 correlation between mouse position on your desk and the mouse pointer position on the screen. "
Not by default on WIndows: https://www.howtogeek.com/3217 [howtogeek.com]...
That has NEVER been true with ANY mouse, anyway. It's only true with digitizers, period, full stop. If you use a wacom (or equivalent) tablet+mouse and make it absolute instead of relative (which is the default) then you can have a mouse with 1:1 correlation, but that's literally the only way that statement is true.
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I'd even question whether or not you can get 256x256 resolution on a standard thumbstick. Assuming the amount of movement is about a 3 cm arc, that means that each resolution point would be equal to just over 0.1mm of movement of the stick. Nobody can control it with that level of accuracy.
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Twin sticks have dominated because they are great.
Great for some things perhaps, but miniature sticks suck supremely for twitch aiming, to the point where every single console shooter necessarily provides auto aim.
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That's why some have suggested that controllers come with a gyro.
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Digital gamepad? Excellent.
Keyboard and mouse? Excellent.
Tiny analog sticks with only a few millimetres of motion? I don't care if you think you're good with these sub-par controlling devices, the fact that console players have to be separated from PC players in online game is proof that twin sticks absolutely suck.
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If Xbox controllers are just PC-connected gamepads, then why do I have to use official Xbox controllers with some PC games rather than my actually standard USB gamepad?
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Especially since Steam doesn't sell hardware outside USA.
You mean the one I just order in the UK for £4 was just a figment of my imagination, as it the one I've already been playing on for years.
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Wha?! I ordered from Canada last year. Wish I'd managed to order a second one yesterday, dang.
Whatevs. Valve should get back to making GAMES, rather than sitting on their ass collecting rent (not VR games. Games people who don't spend $2k+ on rigs every year can play.)
valve is on crack (Score:2)
Lets face it, the once shining star has lost its focus. Its like they are all out spending their millions and don't give a two cardinal shits about their customers.
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The recent de-design of the library page to put adverts front and centre in something that should be entirely user-choice-oriented is the last straw for me. I shouldn't have to spend 2 hours searching for ways to revert a change that I didn't ask for, uses more system resources, and is less useful.
Out of stock... (Score:2)
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It's All About Stadia These Days (Score:1)
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It's nice to see Reggie get some of that sweet commercial money, but fuck Stadia sideways twice
bought a couple (Score:2)
kind of lame that you have to buy each one individually. 2 times the shipping.
Anyhow I think they will come in handy with the new Apple TV Steam Link app.
Can't wait to play steam on my big LG 4k tv with my apple TV 4k.
Should be fun to try at least and the controllers are pretty cheap.
Where do you get them?! (Score:1)
Aaaaaaaaaand they're sold out. (Score:1)
That was quick.
LK
Steam Controller v2 may be coming (Score:2)
This patent filing [googleapis.com] looks quite a bit like a new controller design from Valve, and the Steam Input SDK files contain references to a SteamController V2 [youtube.com]. This suggests that Valve might not be abandoning Steam Controllers, but instead making way for a successor.
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But at the same time you also need to remember this is Valve. A company known for operating in Valve Time, with rather questionable breaks between continuation of product lines and software updates.
Steam Controller 2.0 could arrive in 2020, 2021, or later.
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