- 14 hours
Day one buy when it’s available in my region. My original steam controller was amazing until the wireless adapter crapped out (plus its Bluetooth mode was not great, sadly) and the A button membrane broke. I even tuned that fucking thing to play 2d platformers competently, let alone shooters with gyro aim. I missed it.
My Steam Deck has been rock solid and I’ve wanted something with an identical layout for my PC and docked Deck since it released. I can’t wait
- 19 hours
GN is not at all where I would go for controller reviews.
This is a $100 controller and i’m struggling to see how this contends with the various budget ‘premium’ offerings out there like a vader 4 pro or whatever 8bitdo is slinging, or something else. At $100 i’m pretty sure you’ve eclipsed the great majority of premium options for price and the offbrand choices seem to be better than ever.
I’m still convinced that a cheap $25 controller is as good as any of the expensive ones, so long as it isn’t using bluetooth anyway. I don’t need touch options on my controllers and I don’t use fancy macro/keybind/crazy stuff, so low latency, good tactile response and no problems is all I care about. It’s been a long time since the days of the wired xbox 360 controller where competitors sucked.
19 hoursI don’t need touch options on my controllers and I don’t use fancy macro/keybind/crazy stuff
It’s good that you know what you want in a product, but this product is clearly not marketed at you in this case. It’s kind of silly to compare apples to oranges especially when you’re allergic to citrus in the first place, you know?
- 18 hours
Weird that you call out macros/keybind/crazy stuff as why this isn’t for me, which makes a lot of assumptions. I don’t want to macro all kinds of shit, but I do use my controllers for all kinds of games. I do keybind certain things to the extra buttons. This isn’t even what Valve is going for really. They have effectively three unique features, One extra front button for the quick access menu, the touchpads and a “grip enabled gyro”
Every 3rd party controller has extra buttons that you could setup for that quick access menu.
I have a steam deck. I know how the little pads work. They aren’t great. I still fallback to the touch screen or grabbing a real keyboard instead of trying to type with the stuff.
Nobody is going to have “grip enabled gyro” but where is this going to be useful day 1? A valve tech demo title if anything? There’s no screen like the deck has, so even switch “homebrew” won’t quite work as you’d like without a display touchscreen.
So that leaves the rest of the features which are run of the mill.
- Tons of competitors have TMR joysticks at this price.
- Most have excellent rumble.
- Four buttons on the back is standard with everything. My $25 example only has two bonus buttons, but once you start hitting $50-60 everybody has the two extra buttons and closer to $100 you have a pair of levers too and several extra buttons all over.
Once you start looking at competitors then you start seeing the downsides
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No way to adjust stick tension
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No short trigger switches (the clicky on the vader is beyond addicting.)
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No support for consoles (mentioned anyway)
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No color choices
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No RGB, programmable or otherwise
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Somebody’s gonna have issues bumping into that touchpad when they hold their controller a certain way
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A lot of competitors add a 3rd button to the top on each side as R4/L4. This doesn’t.
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Some competitors also add a couple extra buttons below XABY
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TMR on sticks, but not triggers
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Joysticks not offset like a typical controller. They are very centered and favor the dpad over the stick, and they’re squished upwards because of the touch pads
Anywho, obviously I haven’t held this thing… but on paper it’s just another overpriced controller unless you REALLY want that quick access button and touch pads.
- 6 hours
I feel like your negatives, while subjective are just completely meaningless to me, who would gladly buy this over anything else, especially considering the terrible battery life my Dualsense has had.
Not having RGB to me just seems good, no battery drain and stupid “gamer” styling.
Colour choice sure, but I would have picked black.
Offset sticks would mean I wouldn’t be interested at all.
Console support is entirely meaningless to me, I guess not for everyone but Steam devices are already geared towards PC gaming so it should come as no surprise.
If you have a Steam Deck you should be aware the touch pads can be unbound if that is your preference, so any accidental touches are avoided.
And regarding the price that is the price of an Xbox or PS5 controller in my region already, What is the price for you?
I can’t speak for triggers using different tech as I don’t know enough (or care lets be honest) but I would’ve appreciated the adaptive trigger tech in this one, while underused I think it can be great, especially for driving games.
I feel like you are some sort of power user with a very strict preference, which you seem to make the mistake of thinking your average user is. I just want a controller that does the job and does it well, with some few requirements, like non offset sticks. I might enjoy adjustable sticks. but I will not be bothered by it not being there.
- 6 hours
just want a controller that does the job and does it well
This one portion is the reality. This controller will work just fine, but still be one of the most expensive ones on the market. Enjoy, but know you’ve done no research and don’t really care about the outcome per your own admission.
I grew up with shitty third party controllers that ruined reputation of said off brand controllers, but times have changed. With how the steam software works you can use basically any controller in the world and configure it however you want with your pc games… which is exactly why there’s no compelling reason to go with this model over any other so long as it’s a good controller and just works.
There’s countless stick layouts and choices for people with specific niches. That wasn’t a list of mine, just some potential ones. Most people don’t even know that common and cheap controllers exist with tension settings or adjustable triggers… but hey most people just follow the brand brainwash that advertising and echo chambers on the internet encourage.
- 2 hours
My research is daily driving an og steam controller from day one. I have had some gripes and issues with it, and this seems like it fixed most of them. This is clearly an improvement over it. You don’t need the features the steam controller brings. Fine. There’s nothing wrong with that. Feel free to purchase any of the trillions of Xbox controller clones.
- 16 hours
straightup if you don’t immediately recognize the touchpads as game-changing, then this is NOT the controller for you.
just be content with knowing that scores of people saw the $100 price tag and said “oh that’s actually fine.” and moreover that offering a dissenting opinion to folks who like it is akin to saying “i get this Mona Lisa is popular, i just don’t think anyone should pay that much for a painting!”
it’s got a unique stank threat no other controller replicates. also valve hardware is pretty faultless up to this point.
Joysticks not offset like a typical controller.
What’s a “typical” controller? Playstation controller joysticks haven’t been offset since they invented the concept in 1997.
Also, I didn’t assume anything. I quoted your own words.
- 17 hours
The trackpads are amazing, actually. It’s fine to not like them. In that case, get a cheaper controller and have fun! 100€ is very expensive, but there is no other product out there that offers what Steam Controller does. Also, touch enabled gyro (be it the sticks or trackpads) is a complete game changer for me.
- 15 hours
A few notes:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Symmetrical sticks being a downside is extremely subjective.
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- Airfried@piefed.socialEnglish16 hours
Can’t talk for Vader but 8BitDo’s repairability is going downhill while prices go up. Just based on repariability I would trust this Steam controller to outlive anything else at the moment.
- 18 hours
I’m a big proponent of https://www.8bitdo.com/ultimate-2c-wireless-controller/ which is a great controller at a low price. That’s why I cannot really sympathize with people complaining about the SC price. Just get an alternative. There are plenty.
- Airfried@piefed.socialEnglish16 hours
I got a good deal for their older Pro 2 model last year and yeah it’s pretty good for the price honestly. Linux functionality is a bit dodgy though. Like, it kinda works but I need to set it up regularly for some reason. Switch mode is only partially supported and I can’t get the back buttons to work whatsoever on any mode. I switched to the Sony DualSense for most things but I’m willing to pay a premium price for the Steam Controller.
Back to your point though: Yes, there are good alternatives. Especially if you’re looking for something specialized like N64 emulation. 8BitDo got it for you. But man the Steam Controller seemss neat.
8BitEo regularly releases firmware updates for their controllers (and dongles!). You might want to try the missing functionality after an update.
- 18 hours
I have one of those, they go on sale for $20 or less all the time. Works great.
That being said… i’m not here complaining about price, i’m complaining about value. Show me why this is worth what they are asking. I can and have dropped hundreds of dollars on quality peripherals many times. So far all it has is a valve logo on it. I’d buy two vaders over this any day, and that’s just one direct example.
- viral.vegabond@piefed.socialEnglish17 hours
Just a point to consider that I didn’t see you mention: a lot of times those aftermarket controllers don’t work well with linux. The auxiliary/extra buttons aren’t able to be used. This won’t really be the case for steam controller since it’s made by valve and will have all the proper driver support built in.
My Razer wolverine V2 is a prime example.
- 5 hours
Im full time Linux these days at work and at home.
I have gotten four different third party controllers to work, and really only PopOS gave me issues with them. All just are recognized and “just work” on cachyos.
I just haven’t struggled with peripheral compatibility on computers really since the olden days when we transitioned away from dos and early windows to USB… and then again from 16bit drivers to 32 or again to 64bit. But I do know some devices are a problem for some people I suppose.
Try switching between Xinput and Dinput mode. You can get the extra buttons to work with one of them usually (AFAIK).
- foggenbooty@lemmy.worldEnglish15 hours
I’m not here complaining about price, i’m complaining about value. Show me why this is worth what they are asking.
You already have a Steam Controller built into your Steam Deck. If you haven’t made custom steam input mappings to utilize the touchpads and capacitive sticks with gyro, then this is not going to appeal to you.
If you want to see what that’s all about there are videos on Steam Input for the Deck and all the cool things you can do with it. Once you have that the way you like it you wish all controllers could do it (or at least I do).
So this is a niche product for people who utilize all the control surfaces that the Deck and the original Steam Controller offer. If you don’t then it’s overpriced and not worth it.
- 6 hours
If you haven’t made custom steam input mappings to utilize the touchpads and capacitive sticks with gyro, then this is not going to appeal to you.
We have a winner. A niche like any other… and steam input isn’t exclusive to steam hardware at all lol, third party controllers get all this and more. We all win!
- remnant2652@piefed.worldEnglish17 hours
100% get that it’s a niche controller, but I am that target market. I play a ton of strategy and old point and click games from my couch because I hate sitting at a desk, and crazy enough I still have the original steam controller for that reason. Honestly the price point it’s at and the feature set it has are entirely justifiable for me. Even though I don’t play a ton of shooters, the gyro on it is a must for me since I can’t do basic stick aiming. Just with the old Steam Controller, and even the Steam Deck, it’s not gonna be for everyone, but this is like a dream come true for me. And I’m not opposed to cheaper options as well, wife has an 8bitdo that does feel fantastic for the value too.
Why the hate for GN? You just clearly dont like the controller, but whats that got to do with them?
GN simply isn’t a peripherals review channel with no particular expertise in this field.
- 6 hours
Gamers nexus, a channel that has been a top resource for gamers looking for hardware reviews for over a decade, doesn’t have enough experience gaming to talk about peripherals? What kind of expertise are you looking for exactly? What review source would you recommend to someone interested in buying the new steam controller?
