 "Valve makes final announcement for the week: the Steam Controller")
Valve has made its final big announcement for the week—the Steam Controller. At a glance, the controller looks quite weird since the front only seems to have seven buttons, compared to the traditional ten. Instead of analogue sticks, d-pads and face buttons, Valve has opted for a dual-trackpad system.
The company claims that each trackpad has a high-resolution base and is clickable, which allows for an extra level of tactical feedback. Apparently, thanks to the dual-trackpad system, every game in the Steam library is compatible with the controller. “We’ve fooled those older games into thinking they’re being played with a keyboard and mouse, but we’ve designed a gamepad that’s nothing like either one of those devices,” says the Steam Controller website.
The Steam Controller lacks any analogue sticks
To support games based on keyboard and mouse controls, Valve has built in a legacy mode that allows the controller to present itself as a keyboard and mouse. The Steam Community can use the configuration tool to create and share bindings for their favorite games. Players can choose from a list of the most popular configurations.
In total, the control has two trackpads on the front, a touch screen, four face buttons and three extra buttons on the front, and four trigger buttons and two trackpads on the back. All of the trackpads as well as the touch screen will be clickable, turning them into buttons as well. Valve states that the total number of buttons on the controller is 16.
“Every button and input zone has been placed based on frequency of use, precision required and ergonomic comfort,” says Valve on the Steam Controller website. “Half of [the buttons] are accessible to the player without requiring thumbs to be lifted from the trackpads, including two on the back.”
Valve states that the controller was built from the ground up to be hackable, so the Steam Community can build anything around it. The Steam Controller is part of the Steam Machines beta, and the prototypes will be shipped to users alongside the Steam Machines. Valve states that the controller will be supported on any version of Steam, and doesn’t necessarily need Steam OS or a Steam Machine to work.
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