If I could have the valve touchpads on a controller made by 8bitdo or gamesir that’d be great. I’ll probably buy it, but I haven’t held a Valve device which had buttons or ergonomics that felt as good as the ones from those other two companies.
Everyone is busy maximizing profits instead of fucking innovating meanwhile valve is over here hunkered down like a mad scientist
Valve just realised that killing the golden goose, for a quick buck, is a bad plan.
A smooth, efficient customer experience keeps us around.
A low friction, but not aggressively in your face sales setup makes getting us to pay them very easy.
Streamlining the developer toolchain and sales path means more games to sell to us.
It’s not a hard formula, but apparently MBAs can’t keep with it long enough to let it snowball. They keep trying to cash out early, and cook the goose.
Not being a public company and having executive compensation be dictated by the results of a handful of quarters probably helps
I think what people will look back on and say was so successful about this design as it relates to the steam deck joysticks and trackpads is that it cemented a control pattern that I think will become a standard for high quality pc gamepads/handhelds.
The market is ripe for someone to make something very similar but flip the joysticks and touchpads for people that prefer that layout, for one…
I think the market is kind of stagnant, the Steam Controller should help shake that up a bit hopefully. I’m looking forward to getting 2 of them myself.
Beating mouse + KB is hard and people already have good enough Xbox/ps controllers to justify buying another
This is the correct answer. I use a controller on console because I have to. There are very few game genres (imho) where a controller is superior to a mouse.
To add onto your point, a lot of games where mouse+keyboard isn’t the best set of inputs, neither is a controller. Things like flight games or racing games.
Controllers are definitely the best option for racing games.
nah, steering wheel is
I don’t know how playing something like redout 2, screamer or inertial drift would go on a wheel(they all use twin stick driving).
Sim racing is definitely a wheel, but arcade racers are mostly controller for me.
Jimmy Broadbent suddenly sits up in a cold sweat, breathing heavily
I don’t know what that means.
TBF I’m pretty sure Jimmy is always sweating
Exactly, honestly fighting games are the only genre I can think of where a controller is better than keyboard/mouse… maybe platformers?
Edit: again this is my personal opinion. I knew a guy back when lan parties were still a thing that would play shooters with a trackball and he would annihilate everyone. We all got our preferences :)
Souls like games are pretty much always far superior on controller imo over m+kb. M+kb just feels janky for me in souls likes
Any game that benefits from more then 8 directional movement is better on controller typically. Which is pretty much just third person action games with reflex based movement mechanics. So souls likes typically.
Yea I can see that -I suck so bad at souls games I tend not to play them much anymore
I actually bought a Logitech trackball mouse shortly after I got my PC. My grandpa used to use one and I thought it might have been good for some gaming, but it had been too long since I last used it so it didn’t feel right.
It’s just a personal experience thing for some games. I use controller (8bitdo Pro PS style) for FFXIV, Monster Hunter games, and a few smaller games that use third person overhead (Isometric?) as well as general turn based RPGs, but almost never for anything that feels similar to a shooter. Ark, Warframe, BG3, and a bunch of other survival/builder games, X4 etc are all keyboard and mouse.
There are some that may seem like they’re in the wrong category, like the Horizon games are controller for me despite having a lot of aiming mechanics, but again it’s all personal feeling of comfort. I don’t argue for either one to other people; just use what feels good to you.
I have a third-party Xbox controller that’s my main gamepad, and I bought a PS3 controller a while back for emulating PlayStation games (there was one game I played that I literally needed the controller for a specific mechanic/functionality).
My Xbox controller actually has a couple extra buttons on the back/bottom that you can program to be other buttons; I set them to be alternate bumpers so I don’t have to hold the controller in that weird claw way.
lol I too know the pain of relying on PS3 controllers for games with pressure-sensitive button inputs.
Mine was a motion control mini game that I couldn’t just skip
I guess I’m old enough to remember that there were a plethora of joysticks and game pads during the 80’s and 90’s that were designed for PC. So many options for PC back in the day.
That all changed and dried up after Doom came on the scene and M+K and the precision that it gave became the norm and there was no real need for PC gamepads and the market for that dried up plus with console controllers moving to work with PC’s there was really no need for something PC specific since for most games, M+K is still better suited or at least more than serviceable so the PC controller market is niche still at best.
I played Descent II with both a Microsoft Sidewinder, and a Spaceorb 360.
Holy crap! I just saw that Linus Torvalds wrote in 1999, and is still maintaining, a Linux SpaceOrb 360 driver.
Holy crap 2.0! Here’s a guy selling a complete hardware and software solution to get a SpaceOrb 360 working on a modern computer: https://www.etsy.com/listing/4380741525/vectorbridge-usb-adapter-spaceorb-360?sts=1
Last time I looked, I couldn’t get Windows drivers for it, so I just gave up. Not on Windows anymore.
I remember a time there was plenty.
“I play video games with the same input as Microsoft Excel.”
Imagine playing Excel with a controller.
I’m imagining it right now
Radial menu for functions maybe… double-click left thumbstick to focus menu bar…
I’m getting close…
Factorio players: “I play video games with the same input, output, and gameplay as Microsoft Excel.”
I thought that was EVE Online.
My favorite video game is Microsoft Excel.
My favorite e-sports event is the Microsoft Excel World Championship.
This cannot, CANNOT be real. Is this real?
yes.
Isn’t the 8bitdo a PC first controller, for around $50ish bucks?
That doesn’t really look like it’s useful outside of video games though. It just looks like a good controller with slightly more features than normal controllers. The track pads on the steam controller really look like a game changer to me, I use them all the time on the steam deck for games that are awkward to use with joysticks.
Honestly… To me, any controller that can connect to my PC is a PC controller.
Like yeah, I get the Steam controller; now people can play games that would usually require mouse input. But in my case I’d just… Use the mouse…
I have a controller from 8bitdo (the one that looks like a SNES married to a DS4) and I use that one for games that work best on controller.
Lmao, “Valve don’t know”
It is correct grammar when using “Valve” as a plurality of its employees, as indicated by the use of “they” after the comma.
lol get rekt nerd /s
I’ve literally only ever seen businesses referred to singularly. You’re not referring to the employees, you’re referring to the business. The business is a singular entity. The employees don’t know. The business doesn’t know.
Valve don’t know, but they
“Valve doesn’t know,” would only be correct if they followed it up with “but it.”
Yes, correct. Valve is a business, it is not a person. It would be the correct way to refer to it.
“There are 15 rocks over there. They are scattered all over the ground.”
Are the rocks people?
15 rocks aren’t a single noun. Not the same.
Businesses can’t know or think, either, so the line is clearly referring to people at Valve. For a pedantically accurate title, prepending the sentence with “The developers at” would clear it up, though personally I think it’s fine as is.
“Valve don’t know” makes perfect sense when you say “they” to refer to Valve. You wouldn’t say “They doesn’t know”.
Valve isn’t a they, Valve is an it. Its a business. It doesn’t know.
In American English, yes. Not in British English.
Collective nouns like company names and team names in British English are often conjugated as if the subject is plural. The idea is that Valve is not one person, but many. So Valve are a business, they make a lot of money.
Something like that. I dunno, I’m not British.
I reject the personification of corporations, whether in American English or British English. Valve is not any number of people. It is strictly a legal entity and it should be referred to as such.
I don’t think it’s personification to recognize that Valve is composed of employees, rather than being an object.
The same rules are followed for bands and teams, too. (Iron Maiden are an incredible band. Manchester United are having a great season.)
You can reject it, but that doesn’t mean your “corrections” of British English grammar are accurate. I can correct the pronunciation of “Zee” all I want, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t accurate to Americans to call “Z” that when they’re in the US talking about US things.
It is composed of employees. It isn’t employees.
I didn’t correct anything. I made fun of it. Its dumb. I will continue to make fun of it. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk. Goodbye.
The wired 360 controller should have never been discontinued. There even was a wireless usb dongle. It was a great controller for pc, i used it for java minecraft around 15 years ago. Was also great for flying in Gta5.
Still using it. It works great.
I think the real hole in the market is a simple device that could replace the remote control.
I’m not sure. I use a controller for any game where it makes sense. It’s more ergonomic for me–my fingers get angry at me if I use keyboard and mouse to, say, run around a map for too long. Gamepad doesn’t hurt the same way.
I’m also team “invert the y-axis because my character is a helicopter”.
Still bummed about the 100 dollar price tag
I think I’ll try it if there’s a sale, but that’s a hefty price for a controller. I’m fine with just running m&k for now
I’ve had good experiences with the Gamesir Nova 2 for only $30.
There’s no touch controls, but for a PC-first controller it works great, even on Linux.
Isn’t xbox one is like 150?
Ah, I was looking at pro, which is 170 euro where I am right now https://www.xbox.com/de-DE/accessories/controllers/elite-wireless-controller-series-2
wow, that is a lot for a controller.
They have different controllers at different price points, but my opinion is that a first party controller should only cost about as much as a AAA game at MSRP. A controller should be 40 to 70 usd. Retailers can adjust their price. Third party manufacturers can have more lenience in how they price
I really don’t see how that follows, a controller and a game are different things, why do they have to cost the same. I think the cost needs to be tied to price of manufactoring
$149 for Canadians…
I don’t know the internals of their price decision, but IMO the controller should be sold at close to margin or at a loss. Their real money maker is in selling games and steam item trading. Their hardware should be accessible. The goal shouldn’t be to get a profit out of the controller, it should be to make people stick with the platform and create brand loyalty.
But who knows, maybe the costs of making one is just that high.
Before the Steam Deck. I had said if Valve splits the back buttons and adds Type C Steam Controller 2 is good enough for me. Then I held a Steam Deck. Then I used a Steam Deck. and I knew then THATS what I needed as a controller. 4 years later here we are. I have money already in my Steam Account and anyone who I talk to has to hear me ask if its Monday yet.
Speaking of which… Is it Monday yet?
Yes it is, go, go, go!
