With Steam Machines appearing in the wild this coming November, it’s about time Valve got the final designs nailed down. And that seems to be exactly what they’ve done with the Steam Controller; the key piece in the living room puzzle, translating mouse and keyboard to hand-held controls. The final design is being shown off at GDC this week, and you’ll notice a few refinements.
The Steam Controller now sports an analogue stick on the left-hand side, a feature we saw in design drawings last year. This seems a great idea, making more sense as a movement input than the haptic touchpad. The left-hand touchpad now features a d-pad like etch in the surface.
Also on the front of the controller are the face buttons in traditional Xbox-style configuration, as well as the right-hand touch pad, Steam home button, and back and forward buttons. Behind all these on the rear are triggers, bumper buttons, and another two two buttons to the sides. Overall that’s 16 buttons, with three of those offering multiple types of input.
Polygon have already had a play with it, and noted how when using the touchpad the haptic feedback makes it feel like rolling a ball. The controller is also reportedly entirely configurable, much like keybindings in many PC games.
The controller releases alongside Steam Machines in November, and will cost $49.99. If you can’t envision yourself using the Steam Controller, then you may want to investigate the Xbox One controller. It’s a significant improvement over the 360 version, and Microsoft are releasing a wireless adaptor for the PC this year, too.