Ah, I guess people are working off different definitions of “running outside Steam.” After looking into it, the lack of DirectInput support is indeed not great. It doesn’t affect my use cases, and the first Steam Controller got open source drivers pretty early, so I doubt it’ll actually be a blocker soon after release, but I’ll refrain from commenting on it until more happens.
You don’t have to add them as non-Steam games. You just have to make sure your desktop profile is set up to match how you want those games to be played. You can save templates and swap them out for a bit easier flexibility.
I have my original Steam Controller set up to swap between a mouse and keyboard mode and an Xbox layout and that works for the majority of things I want to do outside of Steam with it, no fiddling with the “add a non-Steam game” stuff.
Would you pay the same price for a Microsoft controller if it had little pads?
If it had all the other little things like TMR sticks, repair-friendly construction, really deep configuration, and other hardware in the family having a track record of good software support, unironically yes. As much as I hate Microsoft, their accessibility controller was a big win.
Also, it’s not simping to genuinely like a company’s products after using a lot of them.
It’ll work outside Steam using whatever controls you have set up for its desktop profile, which can be the stock Xbox layout, and I plan to play a few games that way, but yes, the controller does require Steam Input to shine.
I think “most of them seem disappointed” doesn’t really capture the overall sentiment, but definitely check some video reviews and decide for yourself.
The touchpads are indeed slightly larger at 34.5mm versus the Deck’s 32.5mm. The whole grip angle and triangle of buttons-sticks-pads is rotated from the Steam Deck slightly because your hands will be closer together, so the angle from your shoulders changes. One review mentioned that they wished Valve had actually gone a bit more extreme with the angle, but that didn’t seem to be a common opinion.
Build quality is debatable, but I thought the ergonomics were great. What didn’t you like about them?
Yes, there are several premium controllers in the $200 range. People unhappy with the price are thinking of the SC as an expensive base model controller when feature-wise it’s more like an inexpensive premium one.
Gamers Nexus is pretty much always good and has both review and teardown videos.
I also trust Skill Up’s video due to him covering a lot of the features relevant to Steam Input that most other reviews missed. You can really tell when a reviewer hasn’t done much experimenting with the gyro or configuring in general. You’ll also see what the controller looks like in very large hands. Lol.
I watched probably about twenty reviews and commentaries, and the rest just kind of blend together in saying most of the same stuff.
I’m definitely pushing for this to last a long time. The battery is the only thing that concerns me a little. I use rechargeable Eneloops with the original controller, and there’s no danger of the AA battery form factor disappearing anytime soon. I’ll likely grab a spare battery for the new one eventually just to keep in reserve.
I love the look personally, but I’ve seen people call the Steam Deck ugly, and I don’t understand that either.
In any case, I have the original Steam Controller, Deck, Index headset, and Index controllers, and all have amazing ergonomics. All the video reviewers I trust to not shill for Valve have had minor complaints at worst too.
Damn, you really should have. The controller isn’t affected by the RAMpocalypse, so people have been suspecting this would end up being released first since the delay was announced. I’m waiting for the Frame most of all, so I’ll take your comment as a reminder to not break down and buy another headset early.
A few notes:
First-party support for Steam Input’s deep configuration is a big selling point for a lot of people, myself included. It also means the lack of some of the extra buttons you mentioned present on other premium controllers doesn’t hurt so much, because there’s already so many options for layering in more inputs. Not wanting to mess with most of that doesn’t mean the controller is “not for you,” but it does mean it’s going to align less with what you value.
I absolutely love the Deck’s touchpads. I consider them non-negotiable inclusions for any future PC handheld or controller I buy. I will agree though that they aren’t ideal if your main use case for them was typing any more than a couple words at a time.
Citation needed on no one using grip-enabled gyro. It’s not something you need a game to support to make use of. Also, touch-enabled gyro was awesome on the original Steam Controller, and grip sensing on the Index controllers enabled some cool functionality.
I don’t think lack of console support or color customization are going to register as negatives for most people in the market for this. I can’t even remember the last time I used a console.
Valve has a pretty good track record with ergonomics, so I doubt accidentally activating the touchpads will be a common problem. Even if you find yourself in that spot though, you can have Steam Input disable a pad under certain conditions like when its thumb is on a stick.
Symmetrical sticks being a downside is extremely subjective.
In case you haven’t already, preload your Steam Wallet and make sure to account for any tax. As someone who got my Steam Deck order in the first 15 minutes it dropped, payment processing was the biggest barrier then. They might have fixed it since, but they also might not have. Good luck!
Yeah, I definitely think how much you value this controller is directly proportional to how much of the full Steam Deck control scheme you use. As a heavy user of the Deck’s touchpads to the point I’ll never consider another handheld without them, this is still a day one purchase for me even at $99, but I’m not going to recommend it to anyone without huge caveats.
I definitely think graphical fidelity is “good enough” now, but there’s still quite a bit of advancement available in other areas still drawing on the CPU and GPU, VR and local AI being a couple. I’ve been all in on VR since the Vive, and while I reject corporate AI as much as most people here, I do run local models occasionally and would like to have NPCs using the tech.
Well, anachronism most literally means “misplaced in time.” You can go two directions with that, something being more at home in the future or more at home in the past. The former obviously doesn’t apply here, and I would consider my wording identical to the latter. A reduction in belonging implies a reduction in commonness.
I’m not worried about the tech going away so much as the market percentage dropping to make enthusiast hardware more niche. Among other things, it makes enshittification in the space harder to fight.
Except even among most current PC gamers, the threshold isn’t that high. 4K is still less than 5% of the market.
Also, I’d argue “anachronism” isn’t the same as “pointless.” It’s just claiming that something that was once more common will become less common.
I watched both of his videos already. When I said I want this controller to last a while, I mean literal decades. I know iFixit will have replacement parts, but there’s still going to be a point where even they will stop carrying them.