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Valve announces Steam Controller

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I'm day one for this, Valve wouldn't make this unless they knew it was going to be amazing.

I believe this is well. Valve is so ridiculous with their quality control and taking time to do anything - if they release something you know it has some genius brainpower and thought behind it so there is no way they would release something sub par. They are not known for rushing so there is no way that when this comes out it is going to be anything less than excellent.

The fact that they are giving this to developers now shows that they are committed to releasing something great.
 
I believe this is well. Valve is so ridiculous with their quality control and taking time to do anything - if they release something you know it has some genius brainpower and thought behind it so there is no way they would release something sub par. They are not known for rushing so there is no way that when this comes out it is going to be anything less than excellent.

The fact that they are giving this to developers now shows that they are committed to releasing something great.

This. I can understand the fear that people have that right now it might have some teething problems, but that's exactly why they want to do beta testing with both devs and end-users, to get it perfect.

I mean look at this: http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/18/valve-hardware-jeri-ellsworth/

Internal beta tests are already underway, and a variety of the team's prototypes are available in the office for other Valve employees to tool around with. The next step is getting prototypes into gamers hands -- she says Valve already has a production line for short runs, making a beta possible -- and iterating on design before launch. As for how the beta will be handled, she posits it'll be tied to Steam in some way, but no logistics are anywhere near nailed down.

That was exactly 1 year ago and the beta has yet to begin. They didn't rush.
 

Anteater

Member
Assuming the trackpads are amazing, I wonder if they will work well on portables, I'd kind of like to see a PSP go design with trackpads.
 
cad-20130930-3a879.gif

Ewwwwwww
 

SmokyDave

Member
That's the neat thing about this. While it can simulate analogs or D-pads, it can also simulate a wide variety of other controls that have never really been used in conventional controllers. So for a racing game, you could turn by "rotating" the pad. In a flight sim, you could use the left pad as a joystick and the right pad as a throttle. Heck, we could finally get a podracing game with proper controls.

There was a Lotus branded racer on the PS2 that tried something similar. It wasn't terribly good.

Still, I'll try anything twice!
 

T-Matt

Member
I'm very excited about this controller for a few reasons. One is that it is coming from a major player in games that has no legacy controller to iterate on; therefore Valve was able to venture to a new type of design.
I also like it for the fact I can play older games with a pad no problem or games with no controller support. I know I could play system shock 2 with m/kb but I would much rather use some type of controller. It is just more "fun" and engaging for me. I think there are other people like me who like to game on PC but prefer having a controller since it is what we grew up on.
 
What the fuck am I looking at? Looks like something I would never want to use.

What the fuck am I looking at? Looks like something I would never want to read.

Controller looks great to me though - if only they had rounded corners on the touch-screen I think it would look more professional.
 

gemoran4

Member
thumbsticks don't really work in the living room either. that's why things like auto aim and press-a-to-activate-canned-animation happened.

imagine playing an assassin's creed game and actually being able to feel how close to the edge you are, or the resistance of your thumb movement being stiff at first to simulate accelerating up to a running pace, or being able to physically push yourself up on to the crate you're climbing.

if properly executed, it should make thumbsticks seem like limp, unresponsive artefacts from a bygone age.

I don't think it's that thumbsticks don't work in the living room, i think they've served console gaming well for awhile. A mouse obviously is more accurate and precise, but there also hasn't been an ideal way to translate that kind of control to the living room yet that has the same level of convenience as a controller with analog sticks. Whether this steam controller will deliver that, we'll find out
 

Rafterman

Banned
This. I can understand the fear that people have that right now it might have some teething problems, but that's exactly why they want to do beta testing with both devs and end-users, to get it perfect.

I mean look at this: http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/18/valve-hardware-jeri-ellsworth/



That was exactly 1 year ago and the beta has yet to begin. They didn't rush.

Jeri Ellsworth was working on a different project, and was fired at the beginning of the year. There is no telling how long this controller has been in the works but that interview isn't about it.
 

HariKari

Member
Jeri Ellsworth was working on a different project, and was fired at the beginning of the year. There is no telling how long this controller has been in the works but that interview isn't about it.

Didn't have a very graceful exit either, despite Valve letting her keep what she was working on.
 

th4tguy

Member
I keep searching and searching, but has no one seen the letter from Gabe addressing the people who were disappointed that they announced the controller and not Half-Life 3? It's pretty shocking in my opinion. He not only insults the fans of the series, but he insults the series itself, and other publishers (though the later is a little deserved).

you slobbering shit-wizards are bitching that we didn't announce an FPS sequel.

A cliffhanger to a story about a mute murder-machine who fights a bunch of aliens and gets caught up in a weird inter-dimensional battle. I can understand why you're so invested - it's a well-told story as literary and moving as To Kill a Mockingbird, except with a paper-thin plot where Scout couldn't talk for some reason and kept smashing shit with a crowbar.

This came out yesterday but I'm having a hard time finding anything on it. Is PR going 110% to get this removed or do people just not care? Why is there no thread?

Only place I could find the letter still.

http://www.dorkly.com/article/54448/a-message-from-gabe-newell
 
I keep searching and searching, but has no one seen the letter from Gabe addressing the people who were disappointed that they announced the controller and not Half-Life 3? It's pretty shocking in my opinion. He not only insults the fans of the series, but he insults the series itself, and other publishers (though the later is a little deserved).





This came out yesterday but I'm having a hard time finding anything on it. Is PR going 110% to get this removed or do people just not care? Why is there no thread?

Only place I could find the letter still.

http://www.dorkly.com/article/54448/a-message-from-gabe-newell

Hint: do you know what kind of website dorkly is?
 

Interfectum

Member
I keep searching and searching, but has no one seen the letter from Gabe addressing the people who were disappointed that they announced the controller and not Half-Life 3? It's pretty shocking in my opinion. He not only insults the fans of the series, but he insults the series itself, and other publishers (though the later is a little deserved).





This came out yesterday but I'm having a hard time finding anything on it. Is PR going 110% to get this removed or do people just not care? Why is there no thread?

Only place I could find the letter still.

http://www.dorkly.com/article/54448/a-message-from-gabe-newell

uh... dude. umm.
 

th4tguy

Member
With that kind of naivete, just be glad you're not allowed to make a thread yet.

If the site is like the Onion or something, then I'll let out a good laugh. Never seen anything on Dorkly but could have sworn I saw mention of the letter else where. Oh well, thanks for the heads up.
 

Naminator

Banned
I keep searching and searching, but has no one seen the letter from Gabe addressing the people who were disappointed that they announced the controller and not Half-Life 3? It's pretty shocking in my opinion. He not only insults the fans of the series, but he insults the series itself, and other publishers (though the later is a little deserved).





This came out yesterday but I'm having a hard time finding anything on it. Is PR going 110% to get this removed or do people just not care? Why is there no thread?

Only place I could find the letter still.

http://www.dorkly.com/article/54448/a-message-from-gabe-newell
LOL dude, you are something.
 

Alien Bob

taken advantage of my ass
Oh man, I hope there's plenty of outrage for that, just like when that Irish guy told people to sell their babies so rich folks could eat them.
 
It was Uber Entertainment's turn to play with the controller and they loved it.

https://twitter.com/Ekanaut

Spent some time at Valve playing with Steam Controller. Played Portal 2, Dark Souls and X-Com. It felt good.

bvmowfgcuaakogq9tkik.jpg

Moving the mouse around in X-Com using the Steam controller and having it go exactly where I wanted felt good. Like a trackball with feedbak

Everything on the Steam controller is configurable to specific games.

The haptic feedback makes a big difference to get fine controls

I think based on what we played with today, Planetary Annihilation in the living room with a Steam controller is possible.

@Ekanaut Could you see playing League of Legends on it? Or StarCraft? Those sorts of games are the real test.

@BenKuchera I think you could but it depends on your skill level. It's not quite there yet and they're still tweaking the controller.

@Ekanaut What did you think of the haptic feedback? Some devs have said it makes it feel like you're pressing real buttons. Is this true?

@Goodgreenganja Yeah it felt good. It's also a real button that you can click down.

@Ekanaut Is it able to actually apply force to your thumb, i.e. how an analog stick pushes your thumb back to the center?

@Goodgreenganja not like that. There's a pulse everytime you move your thumb across it. Move it slow slow pulse, move it fast, fast pulse

@Ekanaut ...actually "feel" the buttons. Like did the haptics change depending on whether your thumb was on a "button" or not?

@Goodgreenganja uh, nope nothing magical like that. The whole pad is a click but I didnt play any games that used different parts of the pad

@Ekanaut That controller looks like trash.No way its good.Nice try tho

@wright1216 It's a prototype work in progress and not the final look but works great. I know this is hard for you to understand.

https://twitter.com/ForrestTheWoods/status/385540485151854592

Steam controller is rad. The overall shape fits my hands perfectly. Better than PS3, PS4, or 360 even. Can't wait to see more.

https://twitter.com/jmavor/status/385531931850330112

The new steam controller is officially awesome. I can see playing lots of PA for many hours.
 

Arulan

Member
That sounds promising.

As I've stated before, despite having little interest in using controllers I think the idea of a controller to address many of the shortcomings (if it works out) of conventional controllers is great. If it does indeed work as expected I can see this as a great secondary input option, perhaps even working well with the Oculus Rift for specific types of games where you would want free movement.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
That's the neat thing about this. While it can simulate analogs or D-pads, it can also simulate a wide variety of other controls that have never really been used in conventional controllers. So for a racing game, you could turn by "rotating" the pad. In a flight sim, you could use the left pad as a joystick and the right pad as a throttle. Heck, we could finally get a podracing game with proper controls.

but you could do that now with analogue sticks - just push up and then 'rotate' for left/right. I sometimes try that in Gran Turismo because it gives you a little more finesse over steering, but tbh it is a bit uncomfortable. Maybe on the steam controller it'd be better because you're not having to overcome the sprung force of a stick?


Not directly controller related, but I'm really curious about reference hardware for the ultimate small size, streaming only steambox. What is the smallest you could get away with - Roku size?
 

dock

Member
I wonder what type of rumble this controller has, and whether it has any sort of wireless support. If wireless, will they go for a dongle or bluetooth.

I hate wired controllers.
 
I wonder what type of rumble this controller has, and whether it has any sort of wireless support. If wireless, will they go for a dongle or bluetooth.

I hate wired controllers.

They almost have to go wireless if they are going to go for the whole "living room" theme.
 
I wonder what type of rumble this controller has...

OP found this somewhere:
Haptics
The Steam Controller is built around a new generation of super-precise haptic feedback, employing dual linear resonant actuators. These small, strong, weighted electro-magnets are attached to each of the dual trackpads. They are capable of delivering a wide range of force and vibration, allowing precise control over frequency, amplitude, and direction of movement.

This haptic capability provides a vital channel of information to the player - delivering in-game information about speed, boundaries, thresholds, textures, action confirmations, or any other events about which game designers want players to be aware. It is a higher-bandwidth haptic information channel than exists in any other consumer product that we know of. As a parlour trick they can even play audio waveforms and function as speakers.
 
More positive impressions, hype rising!

And more: https://twitter.com/KochunHu

"Freelance game music and sound. Latest game: @Volgarr the Viking. Ten years in the industry, working with awesomeness like PopCap, Marvel, even Mark Hamill!"

I just played @Volgarr the Viking on the new Steam controller. Wow.

@mendigodeminas I spent most of my time with Volgarr but was quickly able to get decent accuracy on CounterStrike within a couple of minutes

@mendigodeminas It may never totally replace D-pad controllers for certain platformers, but it can definitely help living room PC gaming.

@BrockDiesel I think the haptic feedback makes this a level beyond a mere "touchpad". I didn't try T2 but I can imagine it would work great.

@dTox508 I found it hard to believe too!

@FauciusGaming @VOLGARR Yeah I was pretty impressed. It was so configurable. I tried several configurations; need more time with it!

https://twitter.com/BrockDiesel

"I help make games at Runic Games. Yes, making games is a pretty sweet job."

I got to play with the new Steam controller earlier this week. I think people will like it. They've done some clever things with it.

@KochunHu I played Torchlight II on it and was pretty impressed with how well it worked filling in for mouse & keyboard.
 
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