It’s not the clearest photo, but it clearly has both 2 thumb sticks and 2 track pads.
what 650g shape are you holding for an hour that doesn’t cause wrist pain?
This thing looks almost as big as The Duke.
The thumb sticks seem high. Not sure it’d be fun to use
They look like they’re in about the same position or lower than the sticks in the steam deck.
I’m guessing it’s a little lower since there’s no screen in the middle so your hands are angled together a little more.
Idk, it just looks weird, maybe since its a render, but unless this controller is very small it does not look comfy. The steamdeck controls seems fine, due to how you’re forced to grip it, although I’ve never tried it.
@Fubarberry Sadly caving to the need to have so many different inputs much like the Steam Deck, it looks much less elegant and striking than the original Steam Controller. Like it’s trying to be several different things in one package instead of the bold new single direction of the original SC.
Yeah, I find the controller disappointing as a Steam Controller user because I want a new touchpad centric controller for updated gyro with the old one not feeling smooth for high refresh rate displays.
The approach they went with is one that satisfies joystick users who aren’t really lacking for options when it comes to joystick controllers, but disappointing for the few half dozen users who main the touchpads and have only the option of the discontinued Steam Controller. The Deck pads were a let down for me with the ergonomics, placement, size, and shape so they didn’t end up being a good touchpad successor for my use case opting for the joysticks when I use the Deck.
I’m not surprised with the more mainstream direction they went. Just disappointed but I expected to be disappointed.
I’m pretty surprised nobody seems to like the Deck’s touchpads. Yes they’re a bit of a compromise, but I have been playing hundreds of hours using the right trackpad for camera control on my Deck and they’re pretty great. Maybe my hands are weird.
On the Steam Controller I use the touchpads for
With all the swiping and clicking I do in combination with the back button usage the touchpad placement led to putting strain on my hands. I don’t feel that discomfort with the joysticks, which feel comfortable in its placement and reachability of all the inputs around it.
And the 180 consistency I have hard time replicating with my natural swipe pattern despite adjusting the rotation in Steam Input, so I have to do corner to corner swipes due to Valve going with a square over a circle. The layout is one where I’m having to force my hand out of what would naturally feel comfortable.
For me, the Deck’s trackpads are half way between my thumb knuckles with my hands in a comfortable position, so they’re not nice to reach for, whereas everything’s a comfortable distance away on the original Steam controller. I have big hands, so maybe you’ve got small hands?
“…it clearly has both 2 thumb sticks and 2 track pads.”
Hell yes, I am very bullish on the two thumb sticks and two touchpads being the controller format that will establish the steam deck/handheld gaming pc as the future of gamepads.
It won’t necessarily be a quick, all at once change, but that is because it is a strategic longterm play to reframe what a gamepad is, what its limitations are, and what kind of games can be played with a gamepad.
It will be the kind of thing people look back and point to as the beginning of the whole industry shifting into a new paradigm where playing cool indie games with a gamepad is something people associate with pc gaming first, console gaming second.
They just better have a gyro sensor in there too!
I approve.
SadleyItsBradley is the bane of every developer trying to keep a secret.
God dammit, why will nobody bring back 6 button pads? I’m so sick and tired of having to buy a separate controller just for fighting games. This controller would be absolutely perfect if it just had two more buttons…
Not the same thing, but the steam input allows you to make virtual buttons and assign them to the area of a touchpad.
Well that’s better than nothing so I’ll take it.
I’m just glad that Valve is bringing back the Steam controller. So sick and tired of boring, uninnovative Xbox and Playstation controllers. I like the idea of toggle switches under the controller that aren’t just remaps of existing buttons, and actually usable touchpads. I hope the left stick and D-pad are hot-swappable in the final version, but beggars can’t be choosers.
Doesn’t everybody play fighting games on “a piece of plywood with a bunch of arcade buttons jammed into it”?
Oh, and the backside buttons on the deck are pretty convenient. You might end up liking them more than having “more face buttons than your thumb can reach”.
Looks good. I just hope they bring back two-stage triggers, as those are missing from the Steam Deck.
What’s a two-stage trigger? Analogue until it’s all the way down, then a click (like the GameCube)?
This is correct, linear trigger with a click at the end very useful in desktop mode to have it slow the mouse movement with a trigger pull and then the trigger click for the mouse click.
The Deck triggers don’t have a physical switch at the end, but Steam Input does have soft pull and full pull mappings as well as settings to change when and how they activate.
Not quite the same as you have no tactile feed back on when you are about to enter the full pull part.
Oh that’s cool, I’d not even considered using it to control a mouse
You haven’t just been using the TouchPads in desktop mode?
I got an 8bitdo controller (ultimate 2C or whatever), and it feels really nice. Except the triggers are not two-stage. And it’s smaller.
Down voted for the Twitter sauce. We can do better, people.
Agreed. I can’t access Twitter because its blocked (through some plugins). I think sotwe can display posts without using Twitter directly (not sure if this is a good site, literally just found it): https://www.sotwe.com/SadlyItsBradley
He’s a well known steam data miner, it’s not just a random Twitter user claiming to have a leak.
Screenshot it and link to twitter in the post body, so no one has to visit the cancer-site.
Anyone got a non-xitter copy of this news?
There will probably be gamingonlinux/steamdeckhq articles in the morning, but for now this is the only source.
Thank you kind person.
Looks like they want to bring back the DukeI miss the duke
You’re in luck. The Steam Duke is coming our way!
I still use the Duke. There’s USB adapters for it and I connect them to the docking station.
Can someone put some blush marks and eye dots on it?
from xitter:
I shouldn’t quit my day job
Looks like I’ll be spending $200 for 4 controllers
^Original ^SC ^price: ^$50
It could just be my screen, but that render is hard AF to decipher. Here’s a quick n dirty curves manipulation to get better contrast.
Thank you - I couldn’t see the buttons between the track pads before. Does anyone have an idea what that might be?
if its the same as steamdeck, those are the steam and … (status) overlay buttons.
Those trackpads better have damn good palm reject because getting to those thumbsticks without brushing the trackpads will be impossible for many people.
The steam deck already does in my experience!
The steam deck does
People were saying that about the steam deck before it came out. Maybe some people have had issues, but anecdotally I’ve literally never heard one complaint about that from someone who actually used the device. The way the joystick is elevated above the pad your palm really shouldn’t touch it
Aside from I don’t think that will actually be an issue, the thumb sticks are likely to have touch sensitivity on top like the steam deck ones have. So they can just disable the TouchPad anytime the thumb stick is being touched.
Again, though. I don’t think it will be an issue with your palms.
Awww, poor guy looks sad
They need to market it properly. The average gamer didn’t know how to use the SC to its fullest potential. I would recommend free software that showcases the controllers abilities that can be used with competitor controllers for comparisons. Software with simple games that teaches the user how to make use of all the functions would be a great boon to their sales. It would also help reviews spread the word.
Honestly, the biggest issue with the original was that it’s non-traditional layout meant that games with built in controller support didn’t necessarily work well on it. This layout will make it full featured as a “normal controller”, while offering additional input options when the game benefits from it.
As an avid and current Steam Controller user, top-down twin stick shooters are still awkward. Having a second stick while still having both pads will be a monumental improvement.
Iant that what Aperture Desk Job did?
It did, and I think it did so very well
Fantastic. I love my steam controller, I’ll buy the next one in a heartbeat
