What a curious way of saying this product is in very high demand, it’s almost like the publication wants to project failure and perhaps even ill-will onto the vendor. Veeeeery interesting. Anyone seen Mr. Sweeney lately by the way?
It’s The Verge, what were you expecting?
heh, fair. I guess I’m just rageing against the standard, and the fact that people both tolerate and spread the clealry disingenuous messaging around… It helps me maintain the last frayed thread of sanity I can claim.
They just take old Switch articles and swap out the names.
My wife was supposed to get hers for Mother’s Day. Now she’s hoping Christmas? But even that’s iffy at this point.
“Your present is still being manufactured, please hold”
“Oh honey, I’ll cherish this “Estimated Time of Shipping : Next May” email close to my heart whenever I need to feel appreciated for being a mother.”
I hope she eventually enjoys it. I just wanted to make a joke of a shitty situation you ended up in.
I have a Steam Deck and am not sure what the hype is about with the Steam controller. On my SD, the track pads don’t really work that well (mainly use them in desktop mode as a mouse), and $50 Xbox controllers otherwise seem equivalent, except at half the price with support for Linux distros other than SteamOS. Am I overlooking something critical?
It’s the Gaben effect. It’s like how everyone overlooks that steam is a game store sucking profits out of the industry like all the other big ones or that Gaben owns a billion dollars worth of boats.
It’s just an over priced controller. Steam should start selling clothes so people can go around looking like those obnoxious Ferrari guys. I’d love to see valves marketing budget, it must be massive.
Steam deck before the price hike was definitely a good buy, this though is just fluff.
Don’t like it, then don’t buy it. I find it hilarious that people call it overpriced, but can’t show me a cheaper controller with the same features.
but can’t show me a cheaper controller with the same features.
can they show you any controller with the same features?
Trackpads are crucial if you want to play strategy games or anything mouse based. They also offer a lot better aiming control in fps games (although I think using gyro for aiming is even better than that). They also can be used for fancy touch menus and things like that.
The back buttons are also extremely nice.
Combination of gyro and trackpads is an option for gyro, though it takes some getting used to. Essentially I think use the trackpad for the main looking around and then the gyro is the last step and allows for mouse level precision.
https://www.ign.com/articles/steam-deck-trackpad-gyro-mouse-accuracy-shooters-fps-valve
That works, but my preferred setup for controller shooters is gyro+flickstick. I don’t think the trackpad would be as good for flickstick.
Interesting, I’ll have to look into this one
So use KB+M? Trackpad is a terrible replacement for a mouse/trackball. A lot better aiming in fps vs what? Xbox controller? KB+M?
For FPS games, I’d rank it Mouse>Finger Trackball>Gyro Aim>Thumb Trackball/Trackpads>>Thumbstick
So yeah, if mouse+kb is available, use that. But that’s not a good option on my living room couch.
Ever tried one of these? Putting thumb trackball together with trackpads is a bit much lol! Lap Setup
I have actually, I tried using a thumb ball for awhile before swapping to a 52mm fingerball.
Felt like the ball was too small and my thumb lacked the precision to make it a good alternative to a regular mouse. Your mouse looks to have a larger thumb ball than the one I was using, which would help but wouldn’t be enough (I think). To be honest, I prefer the deck trackpads to that thumb ball mouse I was using.
I’m biased, as I’ve used thumb trackballs since the 90s (did also use regular mice and trackpads). There isn’t a lot of choice in trackballs nowadays when it comes to the big names, but there are few little known brands that still provide solid choices for gaming.
Even newbies to both, within hours thumb trackball should be superior to a trackpad imo though.
My issue was that by default it wasn’t sensitive enough, requiring a much longer time and lots of lifted thumb time to move the cursor across the screen, especially across multiple monitors. But when I turned the sensitive up a lot, I started having trouble having the precision needed to click small buttons. A nicer trackball might have enough weight and smooth enough action to “fling” it, which I could see working, but the one I had didn’t work for that.
The deck trackpads have a larger contact surface that the thumb ball I used, and have pretty predictable “fling” ability which helps them move large distances easily while still being reasonably precise.
The fingerball I used was much larger, and I found it easier to have a suitably high sensitivity while still being accurate enough. Although over several months of use I never quite got to the same ease of use as my preferred mouse setup, and the actual shape of the fingerball body was too flat which was ironically unergonomic for extended use.
In the end I went back to using a mouse. I did realize that I kinda use my mouse like a big trackball though, I keep the base of my palm in a fixed location on the desk, and do the majority of moving the mouse by moving it around with my fingers. The sensitivity is pretty high, but using it this way gives me pretty precise control without any ergonomic issues.
So use KB+M?
You heard the him, boys, cancel your orders, you are doing wrong.
If you’ve never created a custom menu for a game on the steam deck, I can understand not getting the hype. I have customized the controls for a few games so much that I found myself reaching for my deck even when I had my TV or computer available. For me having the same control layout between deck and controller is huge.
Sad, mine is in 2027 and I got in on day 2 when they opened pre-orders as I missed initial announcement.
Gonna keep buying Xbox controllers I suppose then :\ Would love to throw money at Valve for theirs, but they aren’t making it easy and I am not going to join a waitlist for a piece of plastic lol. Hopefully in the future they’ll have some for sale
Plenty of 3rd party options with better tech and lower price are available than Xbox controllers.
Got any examples? I’ve been shopping around but can’t find anything I’m terribly happy with
8bitdo comes to mind
In other comments I’ve already pointed to 8bitdo https://www.8bitdo.com/
Their Ultimate 2 series of controllers have a stupid naming scheme so you have to be careful if you go with one of those. They have a Nintendo compatible variant called the Ultimate 2 Bluetooth controller but all the other ones also come with a USB dongle and a physical switch on the back to enable bluetooth mode (they refer it to Android compatibility then). The low end one is the Ultimate 2c and even that comes with hall effect sensors. The Nintendo compatible one also works with PCs but in Bluetooth mode its ID is Pro Controller and the A/B X/Y buttons are swapped Nintendo style (in Steam it’s a option to reverse that). I have the Nintendo one because it’s better than a Nintendo Pro Controller and a couple of my friends bought the 2c when it was on a ludicrous sale on AliExpress for 10 Euro.
The latest version is the Ultimate 3E which is officially licensed for Xbox. 130 Euro is a bit steep for me. The 8Bitdo Ultimate 2 Wireless Controller costs half the price and the 2c is half of that for a relatively minor loss in features (no RGB LEDs, hall effect instead of TMR sticks, no charging cradle).
A friend of mine has KingKong 2 Pro Controller by Gulikit which is not a couple of years old. He’s only a casual gamer but so far he’s happy with it. I cannot speak for the quality of the latest Gulikit controller.
8bitdo Ultimate 2, do really watch the product name though, because a lot of their similar named controllers are completely different (8bitdo Ultimate 2C for example)
Why wouldn’t you join a wait-list? It’s not like it costs anything, they’re just sending you an email.
I suspect that part of the problem is that they seem to have the steam machine bundled with the controller, or at least that seems to be an option. Presumably they’re keeping some controllers back so they can fulfil those orders.
I’m very happy I managed to snag one. For anyone waiting: it’ll be worth it.
Paper launch.
“Behind”
100% what this actually means is valve is only making them in limited to supply to lengthening the time they take losses.
Valve ain’t making money on decks, they ain’t going to make money on the controllers, and they are going to take a bloody red bath on the machines.
Y’all need to read between the lines. It’s a controller. It ain’t hard to make.
I think people are forgetting that the steam machine is going to ship with a controller as well. I think they have to split their controller production between people buying just the controller and the amount of steam machines they are producing as they get ready to launch that.
Are they making loss with each sales? I’d imagine the $100 price point mean they earn quite a bit.
I doubt they are earning as much as you think.
They jam packed it full of shit that nobody needs like capacitive Joysticks, and capacitive touchpads on the bottom.
I…don’t know how much they earn, but they probably doesn’t sell this as loss.
They increased the price of the steam deck quite a bit. Doubt they’re not making money off of it.
You clearly haven’t watched the other billionaires run at losses for years.
Steam is very happy to lose money on consoles to keep their 30% cut and monopoly.
That has nothing to do with my point. I’m saying that, given the current price (and age), of the steam deck, I doubt that they’re losing money on it.
I disagree. They already had thin margins, they started it themselves. Then prices went up and they sold at a loss. The recent increase was because they couldn’t take more of a bath. This excludes the tens of millions of dollars they have had to pump in you Linux.
I have no doubt until I see data otherwise they are breaking even at best.
What they “pumped” into linux (proton, actually) is a general investment for the future, not something that shpuld be taken into account when discussing the Steam Deck hardware cost, specifically.
You’re also assuming that they didn’t already had purchased the steam deck components at a lower cost when everything started to get more expensive.
Basically you’re making up a relatively plausible but nevertheless imaginary scenario with 0 proof/sources.
You’re forgetting that it’s just a computer, and can it can be reformatted, and you can install any OS on it to do anything with it. It’s not locked to the Steam Store in any way. It’s not like a console where they can sell it at a loss and make money on games later because console companies make it impossible for you to use it as a normal computer. Steam does not.
And yet someone who buys a steam branded computer is specifically highly likely to buy more games from steam. Yes, feel free to buy a cheaper computer with the same specs and never buy from steam ever. You’re not the target of this product.
It doesn’t matter who they’re “targeting”. If they sell it at a loss because it’s more powerful than it costs, people who don’t care at all about Steam will purchase it as a computer to run emulators or normal software. They are not going to do this.
I’m actually baffled who buys all of these controllers? If you’re windows user you have a plethora of options in all price brackets. I wanted to buy steam controller because of Linux compatibility (Reverse engineered Xbox controller driver likes to shit itself from time to time)
Why everyone else just suddenly needs This new controller is just beyond me
It’s a hyped-up piece of videogame hardware. I’m gonna guess half the sales were to scalpers planning to immediately resell at twice the price.
It’s hyped because of the touchpads. And hall effect sticks
That’s why I got it. Sold the dual shock, and Hoping to sell my Xbox controller too
Almost every third party controller these days uses Hall effect or TMR.
It’s hyped because it’s sTeAm and scalpers.
I sweat they do this limited inventory on purpose for the news coverage
There’s no other controllers with touchpad other than dualsense I could find. And dual sense didn’t work for me very well on steam
That’s why people want it. I looked extensibly… I’m used to gaming on keyboard or mouse so I figured I’m better on touchpad than sticks
And why would they need the press coverage into 2027? Id expect they’d prefer sales, where the money could be used for marketing.They already have products like steam frame which will generate media attention later this year
Yeah it does seem nice, and I didn’t say it’s OVERhyped. Just saying scalpers are always a big part of stuff like this.
The old steam controller was loved by many and has always been praised by its very enthusiastic user base. With Valve proving their worth as a hardware vendor to the masses via the steam deck, I’m not surprised the controller is as popular as it is. I hope you manage to get one!
Welcome to my world, just substitute 99% of modern tech and that’s me!
I want something that works instead of PS5 Bluetooth that cuts off when I put it under my desk. It’s a first class controller designed for pc that just works. It also has other cool things like never dying.
I’ve experimented with Xbox controller on Bluetooth, and it wasn’t a good experience. I did some research and it looks like it’s because Microslop decided to ignore the bloetooh specs - controller doesn’t signal required bandwidth, so BT driver defaults to the lowest one. If you force driver to faster transmission rate, it will work better, but all other devices that support lowest speed only won’t work
Mine heats to crazy temps and I had to glue a copper radiator on to the microslop bluetooth thingy
I found that disabling my motherboard’s Bluetooth and using a dongle improved that situation dramatically. I suspect all the EMI plus a steel desktop case was a big contributor.
Oh also the ps5 controller speaker set as default was a horrendous and annoying experience lol
It got two track pad, i can’t find the recommended one on this price range with two track pad.
Edit: i can’t buy it even if i wanted to.
If you’re windows user you have a plethora of options in all price brackets. I wanted to buy steam controller because of Linux compatibility (Reverse engineered Xbox controller driver likes to shit itself from time to time)
8bitdo and similar controllers work absolutely fine under Linux. No idea where your Linux compatibility thing comes from.
8bitdo
First time I hear about this company. I have no idea if they’re trust worth, and If they make a solid product that won’t break two months after warranty expires.
What? They’re probably the biggest 3rd party game controller vendor. They moved to hall effect before even the 1st party companies had those in their elite controllers.
Also, regular Xbox also work fine under Linux. The only thing that needs the reverse engineered community driver is that wireless dongle because it can pair multiple controllers. USB and Bluetooth are absolutely fine for pretty much every controller under Linux. The dongle 8bitdo uses is for a single controller, so it acts like a regular controller that was connected with a USB cable.
Maybe they’re known in US, but I never seen them in EU.
USB and Bluetooth are absolutely fine for pretty much every controller under Linux.
USB yes, Bluetooth no - BT has by design considerable input lag, and in case Xbox controller it was even worse.
Reverse engineered xone driver for dongle fails every few kernel updates. I know, I used it for like two years. After few months of not using the game pad you find that it doesn’t work, you need to install new version of the driver IF it’s available, if not you have to downgrade kernel. Fuck this experience. I want things to work out of the box.
“So behind”
They’re dealing with exorbitant demand during a time when tech and hardware prices are skyrocketing. They’re doing quite well given the circumstances, imo.
Well, on the one hand… having more demand than you can actually fulfill is the kind of problem most busineses would like to have…
Assuming they’re actually moving a lot of units.
They are not. Sold out in 30 minutes. Lol.
Bold of you to assume that you can’t sell out hundreds of thousands, if not millions of units in 30 minutes.
This man has never heard of bots
And bots don’t have to pay for goods or what are you trying to say?
Well the bots got the lion’s share, for sure. They’ll get the machines and frames too.
You can sell out a loot of units in 30 minutes…
I mean… even if they’re not moving a lot of units, its still broadly a good problem to have -> considerably more people than you thought, want to buy the thing you sell.
So at bare minimum you’ve over delivered in terms of product design.
The extremely obvious capitalist response to that would be to raise prices on that thing. Win win, right? The extra profits go toward more capex to make more future production.
… But they haven’t done that.
They haven’t done that because they care about their image more than their profit margins on this particular product.
And/or because in the current environment… basically, the cost/reward on spending more capex isn’t worth the reputation hit.
The capex spending to meaningfully ramp up production would be so expensive, that it’d end up being a net loss, in terms of reputation damage.
… At least this is my semi-informed guess.
Or they are taking a loss on every deck, controller, sold and we don’t even have a price on the desktop.
Valve is taking a red bloody bath and slowing the bleeding.
Do you have any evidence to suggest that valve released a brand new controller and decided, what out of the goodness of their hearts, to sell it for a loss?
Businesses sell things for a loss all the time, it’s never out of the goodness of their hearts. It’s a strategy to gain market share or to sell other products for a higher margin. Every supermarket you’ve ever been to has products for sale at a loss. Doesn’t make it a good deal for the customer either, just an accounting reality.
Yes but valve already has a monopoly on the PC gaming market. Usually companies sell things at a loss to attract you to them so you buy other things while you get the good deal.
In valve’s case, we’re already in the store buying their games. There’s no reason for them to sell it at a loss, because it won’t attract people to steam.
Theres nobody out there saying “wow I would be a PC gamer playing on steam if I had a steam specific controller.”
Maybe that’s the case for the steam machines and steam frame coming up, but I kinda doubt it.
As someone who works in retail, even our best sales at our store will still make us around a 10% profit. Our normal GP for items sits around 30% to 40%, so while it is less than that we almost never actually sell things for a real loss.
So… no evidence?
Yeah but this isn’t really the same as the Costco hot dog. It’s a product that’s more expensive than the alternatives (though they don’t have track pads) and steam is the defacto pc gaming software. Other massive companies can barely compete and have to do stuff like epic where they give games out for free (exactly the kind of tactic you’re talking about). My sarcastic comment about the kindness of their heart is because I personally can’t see another reason to do that. That’s why I asked for any evidence - an interview, a tweet from someone who would know, an article, anything other than a hunch.
sarcastic comment about the kindness of their heart is because I personally can’t see another reason to do that
Exactly you can’t personally see it so i explained it to you lol
They could’ve sold it at twice the price I’d still would’ve bought one tho?
Why should they take a loss on the controller? There is no RAM or other parts affected by the price hikes in it. Also they announced the price only shortly before launch. Why should they have chosen a price that does not cover the costs? This does not make any sense.
I put in my reservation on May 14th and it’s showing availability in 2027 for me. It’s kind of killing my interest to be honest. That’s a long wait.
I reserved mine 15 minutes after the reservations opened and I’m not getting it till September
There’s 3 possible categories, and you got the earliest. The other two are “December” and “2027”.
I reserved maybe an hour after they opened up and I got mine the other day.
Well, at least it’s an update. I was just about to post in here if anyone had received a purchase link from their reservation yet. I made mine on May 10th; maybe that means I’ll be in the “this year” batch.
I made my reservation in the first minutes when it was possible and clicked the buying link as soon as I got one sent. The controller was delivered 10 days ago. I am located in Germany.
I made my reservation request on May 8th at 11am, and I got my purchase invitation on June 15th at 9pm. Hope that helps.
I didn’t think to reserve it before the 12th. So mine says 2027. I just thought they’d meet demand.
I made my reservation on May 9th and it shows December.
same here.
Or maybe you’ll get the link tomorrow and it will ship alarmingly fast like mine! ¯\(ツ)/¯
Yup, I got mine on day one (spam that F5 ppl) and it was here on the second day, surprised me, pleasantly, they said a week.
You can now see the estimated delivery date on the Steam Controller page!
