Valve have held back on showing the Steam Controller fitted with a touchscreen. It’s been in all the press images released by the developer but no one who has gone hands on with the device has had a chance to use it. Nor will they, it seems. Valve are scrapping the idea in favour of two sets of diamond buttons, akin to the AXYB buttons on a 360 controller.
Auroch Digital’s Tomas Rawlings broke the news from Valve’s Steam Dev Days conference:
Touchscreen was removed as ghost mode made it redundant #SteamDevDays
— Tomas Rawlings (@TomasRawlings) January 15, 2014
Ghost Mode is when you swipe your thumb over one of the controller’s trackpads. The action brings up a ghostly virtual thumb on the screen that can be used like a mouse.
In place of the touchscreen Valve are adding eight new buttons:
They will be bringing button diamonds for backwards compatibility with other controllers. No mid touch screen. #SteamDevDays
— Becky (@omglazerkittens) January 15, 2014
At this point the Steam Controller is made of buttons. You touch any of its surfaces and you might quit to menu, boot up the Steam Machine’s inert, yet suspicious, AI, commence the rapture, or load Porn Hub.
This is what the thing will look like:
Oh yeah, the new #SteamController will look like this: pic.twitter.com/uRxvRY5kXm
— Leszek Godlewski (@TheIneQuation) January 15, 2014
While the new buttons will make the controller more compatible with games that used the Xbox 360 controller, another possible reason for the shift to buttons is virtual reality.
VR was an important driver behind why Valve wanted to develop a controller. #SteamDevDays
— Tomas Rawlings (@TomasRawlings) January 15, 2014
The touchscreen, which was going to act as a little television screen, would become redundant once you put on a VR headset. You could still touch and use the thing but you wouldn’t be able to read what the buttons on it were.
I’ve still not had a chance to get my hands on a Steam Controller but Team Meat’s Tommy Refenes was very taken with it.