This guy will have to wait for his younger brother.
It was available to buy starting noon local time. I refreshed the page until the buy option became available, but kept getting an error when submitting payment. Waited about half an hour and now it’s sold out. Ni modo I guess.
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DO NOT BUY THEM FROM EBAY!
or any other one of those websites … the resellers are scum and you’ve waited this long, you can wait longer! hold strong!
No point anyway. It’s not like they’re difficult to manufacture or constrained by available components.
Don’t jinx us… we’re in the middle of a war, there are new tariffs every other day. I’m sure something could happen to the controllers supply chain.
Actually, that is a good point… That being said, Steam as a company stays entirely apolitical.
However, of course, someone at Valve would simply need to whisper anything Anti-trump, and Trump would actively invoke laws to sabotage them, and call them woke or whatever
Or they could just be caught in the crossfire, like they already have with the RAM shortage
Are they manufactured in the US that seems like a bad idea.
They were shipped into the US from Hong Kong, so probably manufactured (or at least assembled) in East Asia.
Hey, at least you didn’t camp in front of the store and waited for hours in the freezing cold to go home empty handed. That’s how new hardware releases used to be. They haven’t restocked the Steam Deck in months but they will restock the controller soon, I believe.
I barely managed to get one, had to spend well over 20 minutes spamming the continue button, because the first couple of times I passed that screen something else failed (they even charged me one of those times but the purchase didn’t finish, so I imagine it will get reverted in a while).
I liked my old steam controller more in theory than in practice, I still have it and use it occasionally but it’s more of a rarity when I think the features make up for the lack of d-pad and right stick. But the Steam Deck is just ideal for me, from the moment I grabbed it I have been wanting a standalone controller with that same format and inputs.
In any case, sorry you didn’t get one now, I’m sure they’ll be back in stock very quickly, it’s likely they did a small batch first to test the waters on how much people wanted this. But production is probably ramping up just like what happened with the Steam Deck.
Ah, one of the dozen people who actually liked the original Steam controller! A rare sight indeed.
I actually didn’t like it very much. Had to dig it out of a drawer for this photo. The face buttons are in an awkward position and the left trackpad is a terrible D-pad substitute. But I loved the gyro, and if it didn’t invent grip buttons it was my first exposure to them at least, and both MS and Nintendo liked them, too, since the Xbox elite controller and switch 2 pro controller have them. I saw the potential and looked forward to Valve improving it, and by all accounts this new iteration is an improvement.
I’m also a sucker for mold-breaking attempts at better ergonomics. I own a Twiddler. Still can’t get the hang of it, but nothing ventured nothing gained.
Exact same, I loved the features but it just wasn’t very comfortable in my hands. The steam deck feels way better to me, and the new controller looks like that minus the screen, so I’ve been super excited for this.
That’s interesting. The comfort was the number 1 feature of the original controller for me. The deck is the one hurting my wrists.
I’ve heard a lot of other anecdotes from people who found the og controller really comfortable when others weren’t, so you’re definitely not alone there. Personally, I was constantly readjusting my grip but could never find that illusive sweet spot, so after awhile I’d start straining and cramping. I had a couple bumping around for a few years that I pulled out occasionally but I eventually sold them on eBay when their prices skyrocketed and mine were just collecting dust.
It’ll be in stock again soon I’m certain. They’re gamepads, not limited edition Pokemon cards or super cutting edge HBM memory chips
Oof. That’s rough. But given how insanely profitable these ~90 minutes must have been for Valve, I’m sure they’ll be back in stock in a few weeks since none of the components seem to have supply issues.
I managed to get one by just spam-clicking the continue button for about two minutes. I know, I’m part of the problem.
I never do that because there’s not much I need enough to commit that much, but also because I’m worried that the next week thirty of them will show up on my doorstep and I’ll realize I’m broke.
For me, the error was popping up before the payment confirmation screen, so it wouldn’t have been possible. Spamming the button worked for me.
But shit, if I did accidentally buy several, I’d just offload them at MSRP, probably to people on this site that couldn’t get one.
Maybe they would have lost money overall. The store being down for 45 minutes, is not good fo business.
While true, they still sold out.
Same except for about 20 minutes, and that’s after wasting like 5 minutes looking for my wallet lol, so apparently I bought one of the last ones in stock
I knew the inventory would be sold in minutes, so I prepped. I loaded 150 EUR into my Steam wallet in case the 99 didn’t include taxes, I double checked that my shipping and billing info is automatically filled in, and I made sure to be at my computer one hour before the release time just in case I fucked up the time zone conversion.
Same here but with a 100. Had to spam click on payment but it went through after a couple of tries
Was 100 enough? Mine came out to like 106 or something, with tax
In the EU prices have to already include tax, so steam prices are exactly what it costs at checkout
Gotcha. Must be nice.
Looks like this in the end basically. They just reverse engineer the price so the tax gets it to the target price.
I actually got kinda lucky in that respect, I learned last week that it was coming out today, but I didn’t know when, and I stupidly didn’t set any reminders or anything. Thankfully I happened to remember the sale this morning and was able to find out the time it started literally 10 minutes before it went live.
I was getting an error as well. I saw someone on Reddit say they just spammed the “confirm” button and it eventually went through.
So I did that for like 10 min and it worked
Yeah giving up for 30 mins probably wasn’t the right move. You just keep trying even when it isn’t working at all. I’ve gotten some great concert tickets that way.
They did a hardware launch perfectly for the Deck - Account of minimum age needed, and a queue to buy as devices became available. Why the hell did they go with the old, shit version that only serves scalpers that use bots to scoop up every item?
So headlines will say “sold out in minutes!!!” and create FOMO for the second wave. That’s my guess at least.
This doesn’t really seem like Valve’s MO
Why would you assume that is Valve’s reason
People like to add reasoning to chaos. Everything has to be planned out for some people instead of life happening and businesses do what they do naturally. Take advantage of situations when they can and make money. I like valve and plan on getting a machine or deck when they are restocked. I think it’s normal supply and demand with this one.
Oh, the picture is an old controller? What’s different about the new one?
Much closer to the steam deck. So has proper d pad, 2 analogue sticks with 2 square touch pads. Also has 4 back buttons, and capacitive touch sections on the grips. Has a few other features as well.
Why would you ever need more than one button to go back?
Oh… a button, that is on the back?
Yeah I realized my mistake halfway through writing this.
if you can’t find one I’d recommend getting a ps5 controller instead: it at least has one trackpad and a gyro, and works well with steam input.
I find the gyro is more useful than the track pad for mouse input, with an activation button set to capacitive touch on the track pad, or set to the aim button such as left trigger for shooting games.
The PS5 DualSense is definitely the second-best choice if you can’t get a Steam controller. It has comparable features, although I personally feel like the touchpads are placed in suboptimal position compared to the Steam controller. It also has comparable build quality, unlike Microsoft’s various iterations of Xbox controllers that all have absolutely disastrous build quality.
I’m a huge fan of the Dual Sense. Best haptics I’ve ever felt, awesome triggers, etc.
That said, the track pad on it isn’t at all comparable to the ones on the Deck (and I’m guessing this new controller).
Even if games did let you bind it to anything and use it as a mouse for FPS games (it doesn’t), the size and placement is super awkward for that use
Even if games did let you bind it to anything and use it as a mouse for FPS games (it doesn’t), the size and placement is super awkward for that use
steam input.
Well sure… I was talking about PS5 I guess
oh I see, I think most PS5 games seem to make decent use of the gyro, but yeah not many make use of the trackpad :(
I think most PS5 games seem to make decent use of the gyro
This has not been my experience at all… I’ve only ran into a few that have it as an option
dog help you when (not if) your dualsense gets stick drift tho
Yeah, I’m on my third. It’s fucking bullshit to be honest.
Why PS5?
why not any of the other good controllers out there. https://gamepadla.com/
We all know the “trackpad” on the ps5 controller is not really the same at all. Potentiometers for joysticks are unheard of in high quality controllers these days- everybody is using Hall Effect or TMR.
It’s not like games really make use of touch controls these days, at least not the ones releasing on PC with high popularity like Crimson Desert.
PS5 controller specific, there is no dongle. You’re stuck wired or bluetooth. Bluetooth is generally the worst for latency on any controller, and aside from a couple of very specific models with very low bluetooth latency it’s really bad compared to a dedicated dongle / 2.4G.
My biggest gripe with the dualsense is the battery life. I get maybe 3.5 hours from it if I’m lucky and that’s just watching media, literally barely using at all.
Sounds like Sony cheaps out on batteries with their PS controllers and has for some time. I have had battery issues with my PS 4 controller (that I barely use) and that’s part of the reason I was looking forward to the steam controller – battery life.
It’s not like games really make use of touch controls these days, at least not the ones releasing on PC with high popularity like Crimson Desert.
that’s what steam input is for…
I don’t want to fuck with controller settings to create unique bindings and controls for a feature that has no meaningful value add.
If I wanted four extra buttons or something, i’d just use the extra shoulder buttons and paddle buttons on the back of my controllers. There’s no reason to do this though in crimson desert that I know of, the stock controller binds are awesome.
I don’t want to fuck with controller settings to create unique bindings and controls for a feature that has no meaningful value add
the steam controller also probably isn’t for you in that case…
I’m willing to bet the overwhelming majority of people buying this who aren’t just scalpers jumping on the ~$200-$300 ebay price tag will never, ever create custom binds for those pads man.
I’ve created several, and I don’t own a Steam Controller yet.
And I’ve also used countless community layouts created by others.
Steam Input is fucking awesome. If you know, you know.
the community creates a lot of custom layouts too, so you just need to scroll down the list and find one. The default ones also generally work pretty well and are easy to modify. It’s just like changing your controls in any pc game.
Id hazard a guess that while the majority of people don’t change their controls, those sort of people also don’t tend to buy a steam controller.
I’m completely familiar with community layouts as a steam deck user.
The point for those to me is creating controls when a developer does not have them themselves.
I have been using specialty peripherals for multiple decades, starting from when they used serial and peripheral ports. I’m quite aware of being able to bind buttons from flight sticks, yokes and other devices in games in many different ways. I still can’t find a good use case in any game i’ve played for those touchpads though, especially not if I have an R4/L4 and back paddles (because cardinal direction keybinds are an easy ‘oh it’s x extra buttons!’)
Would be awesome if someone could chime in with actual examples of how they are so awesome in a game like crimson desert, pragmata, stardew valley, dynasty warriors origins, nioh 3, monster hunter wilds, or even games that aren’t really controller games like cyber knights: fliashpoint or factorio or something.
I know some people use the trackpads for games that really ought to use a mouse and keyboard like non-controller FPS games, and RTS games… but I still don’t see a real reason why I would want to try and suffer through trackpads intead of a real mouse or even a trackball mouse on a couch htpc scenario.
I don’t have any of those 😅 🤷
I’ve not had stick drift… yet… (all of my Nintendo switch nunchuck controllers that I barely use however… all have stick drift 😅)
I’ve never noticed any input lag, but maybe my bt receiver is decent or something 🤷
there’s quite a few community layouts for the DS5 in steam
That gamepadlia site doesn’t appear to have a filter for trackpads…
Yeah, the typical experience for people doesn’t expose them to what’s out there for controllers. Maybe you’ve heard of 8bitdo in passing or have seen the really shitty hori conrollers in your childhood (or any of the other archaic garbage brands that used to exist and were handed to little brothers everywhere as the shitty controller.) Times have changed. I think the non-major brands are better now. I have only tried a small sample of what is out there, but have yet to be disappointed in the $25-$65 range. Can’t speak to the stupid expensive $100-200+ controllers like what razer makes. I usually check reviewers.
Bluetooth as a tech has all kinds of issues for users. Just takes a bad driver update and it’s not working right. Dongles just work, like cables. Plus some controllers are horrible on bluetooth. Latency most people don’t notice without a side by side comparison, but it’s always there. I do use controllers with bluetooth, generally when I have no other option or a dongle isn’t convenient. It’s common for dongles to be included with and removable from charging base stations nowadays, like what comes with the ~$55 8bitdo ultimate wireless 2.
The trackpad filter though you’re looking for doesn’t exist because nothing else works like the valve deck/controller pads. The ps5 one is not really the same without the feedback and awkward placement imo.
I haven’t had stick drift myself either since the 360 days, but I don’t game full time on a controller. It’s one of those every now and then on a specific game i’ll use it. Have a ps5 but hardly played it so the controller is still like new… but I had an xbox elite series 2 controller have shoulder button issues with less than 100 hours used, which led me to look at “off brands” that changed my mind about how to approach controllers overall.
Will say that joystick tension adjustments are awesome, as are adjustable triggers. Most other features are pointless for me but I know macros can be useful for some. The trackpad thing is a hard sell though because the game has to have a meaningful implementation (still waiting to find one of those. Maybe someone with a deck that uses them heavily can chime in…) or you need to setup a custom controls in steam’s direct input somehow to make use of it in a game.
The ps5 one is not really the same without the feedback and awkward placement imo.
I have an old steam controller too and I find the placement of the thumbsticks and face buttons awkward so I tend to use the PS5 one instead, and I don’t find the trackpad placement on it too bad. steam controller trackpad placement is definitely way better though.
I have mine still. Bought it at launch. Never went back. Best controller I’ve ever had the pleasure to use. I genuinly LOVE everything about it. I don’t even want the new one.
Can’t improve upon perfection
I’ve had 2 different ones, and both got the “R1” button broken. It’s a pity because it’s the best controller I’ve ever used
I’ll sorry to hear that. I suppose I’ve been fortunate enough to never have any issues at all with mine. I will be a sad day when it gives up. I don’t think I could play Elden Ring with any other controller.
I have repaired this myself at least 4 different times. The piece is so flimsy. Still love this controller.
I’ll also be waiting for a mext batch… the steam frame will be a nightmare to get if it’s like this too… i have close to 9 000 hours in steamVR i wish that would count for something when getting the new headset.
It does. You had your fun, now it’s time fit the 0 hours gang.
I really hope a lot of new people jump in and discover how truly incredible VR games are :)
What are 3 of your favorite? That aren’t half life?
For a quick answer i’ll give you my most played VR games and i might update this comment tomorrow with actual preferences. Beatsaber, skyrim VR, grimlord, legendary tales, windlands, blade and sorcery, payday 2, behemoth, …
Thanks
Whats the big deal with this controller anyway? I dont get it.
It has trackpad which allow you to play KB+mouse games very fluidly. Also they can be used to add radial or grid buttons to any game.
It has TMR sticks which means no drift and less power consumption.
It has a gyro.
It has 4 back buttons.
It’s fully compatible with steam Input so you can do crazy mappings of every single input.
It has capacitive sensors on the thumb sticks and handles so you can use that as input or modifiers.
It uses a dedicated dongle that has a latency comparable with plugged device according to some tests.
It also connects via cable or Bluetooth.
It’s very reparable friendly and Valve will be offering replacement parts.
Ooh I see. Im just always using mouse and keyboard like a nerd so Id probably rarely use this stuff. Thanks tho!
Yup, this is not going to replace KB+Mouse, but it is the closest we have been able to get in a controller form factor, so if you want to play on your TV in the living room this unlocks many games that you simply couldn’t play before.
In short if you don’t care about controllers then you shouldn’t care about this, but as far as controllers go it’s, IMO, the best there is by a LONG shot.
It’s so good if you ignore the price, the symmetric thumbsticks, the awkward trackpads and the fact it only works on Steam games.
I dont think it only works with steam games
It’s so good if you ignore
the price
Which is fair considering the features
the symmetric thumbsticks
Which some of us prefer.
the awkward trackpads
Which are the biggest selling point of the controller, if you don’t want trackpads an 8BitDo has almost the same features.
and the fact it only works on Steam games.
That’s not a fact, in fact it’s quite wrong. The controller works outside of steam normally, it’s just that it’s mapped to common desktop inputs which are less than useful for games butake total sense in a world where it’s meant to be used plugged to a PC and you might need to click your way through to open Steam. But there are open source programs to map the inputs to a controller which is essentially what SteamInput does. At least that’s what the OG controller did and from the reviews of the new one seems to be exactly the same.
And before you say “but you have to install a third party tool” that’s also true for other controllers if you want full features.
Dude, it’s just a piece of plastic. You can wait a bit.
I genuinely don’t understand the hype beyond valve fanboyism. They already released a steam controller years ago and it was actually terrible, like there’s a reason no one else has even bothered to try and copy the track pad controller gimmick, because it’s just bad.
The lack of twin thumbsticks are what killed the original.
This one is better, but aside from better trackpad placement, it doesn’t offer a lot above the PS5 controller, which a lot of people already have.
Still, they sold out, so mission successful I suppose. I’ve no doubt the same thing will happen when I try and get a Steam Frame.
The main failure of the original controller was the lack of two thumbsticks (just like the PSP). While the track pads made a lot of PC games playable with a controller some games were worse with one thumbstick.
This controller fixes my main compliant, has a dedicated d-pad, and what looks like better track pads. So it’ll be perfect for playing around 90% of games with one controller.
This. The original Steam Controller did not meet the de-facto standard baseline for controller layout established by the first DualShock[1] that games have learned to expect and build their control schemes around.
The Steam Controller 2 does have everything in that layout. It’s modeled after the Deck’s layout, which is quite good.
Ignoring the analog button - which is not part of that “standard” because the software does not even need to acknowledge its existence - and the vibrations (which many controllers have, but are not required for input to work) ↩︎
The original controller was like a concept car, lots of new ideas but not every one was guaranteed to stick. Plenty of them did stick though, like grip buttons and gyro control. The new controller is a more conservative iteration that takes what worked and drops what didn’t while acknowledging why the industry converged on the standard button layout all the way back in the late 90s. That’s exactly the sort of innovation I want to see.
Not sure if you’re trolling, or have been living under a rock. This new controller is the same as the Steam Deck layout, which has been extremely successful and well received.
