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Valve switches on Steam Controller's mobile connection in beta
Valve's latest beta client activates the Steam Controller's Bluetooth Low Energy function -- a necessary feature if you want to use the gamepad to play on a mobile device in the near future. If you'll recall, the company recently announced that Steam Link will be able beam games to the dedicated iOS and Android apps it's releasing during the week of May 21st. That means you'll soon be able to play on a phone, tablet or TV, so long as it's on the same 5GHz network as the host PC or it's connected to the computer via Ethernet cable.
Valve's Steam Controller interface now works with Xbox gamepads
Arguably, one of the best things about Valve's Steam Controller is its software component -- an interface that allows user to assign any button of their controller to a myriad of keyboard functions. Its a feature that lets gamers make any PC game playable by controller -- even if it was only designed to be used with a mouse and keyboard. The interface is so good, Valve enabled it for PlayStation 4 controllers earlier this year. Now they're enabling it for pretty much everything else: the latest version of Steam's beta channel will let you fully customize the Xbox 360 gamepad, the Xbox One controller and any other input device that uses the Xinput standard.
Steam now has full support for the PS4 controller
Valve tried to radically redesign the gaming controller with its own Steam controller, but for a lot of players it never quite caught on. Fortunately, Steam is a very flexible OS and it's pretty easy to use your controller of choice. Like the PS4's Dualshock 4 controller, for example: Valve just announced today that the Steam client now fully supports the Dualshock 4. That means all the controller's capabilities can be mapped to various functions in Steam, including the trackpad and gyroscope.
Valve is testing DualShock 4 support in Steam's beta channel
If you never quite got the hang of Valve's weird touch-pad laden game controller, you're in luck: The company is, as promised, testing out Steam Configuration support for the DualShock 4. Steam beta client users can now customize every button on the PlayStation 4 gamepad using the same key-mapping interface Valve uses for its own Steam Controller. This makes the more traditional gamepad compatible with every non-VR title in the Steam library -- even those without native controller support.
Six months with the Steam Controller
The gentle whine of the haptics, the new rumble support, those inner paddles that make toggling run and crouch so easy ... oh, and the one-click quick-save! I may be in the minority, but I love my Steam Controller. The divisive Valve device has just cleared six months of existence. You may have dismissed it at launch, as most reviewers did, as being "weird." In the past half-year, though, it's found its groove among weirdos, modders and amateur tinkerers. My love for the controller has even begun to grow outside of gaming, and I've found that it's started to colonize my interactions with Windows in many surprising ways.
Valve tests Steam Controller customizations and 3D VR screenshots
When Valve announced that it had sold over half a million Steam Controllers, it also noted a new feature on the way called Activators. With Activators, gamers can customize each press of an input on the gamepad, with tweaks for haptic settings, or distinguish between a normal press, a long press or a double tap -- all on a single input. Now the feature is live for users in the Steam beta, to try out and see if there's another level of precision for controller customization.
Valve has sold over 500,000 Steam Controllers
If you've been wondering how many people bought into Valve's bid to redefine the PC gamepad, you've got an answer: about half a million. That's the number Valve gave today in the Steam Controller's June Update post. That's a lot of controllers, but nowhere near enough to overthrow the dual-stick status quo. It is enough, however, to give Valve a diverse user base from which to harvest valuable user feedback. "With every controller that comes online we get the opportunity to get more feedback on how to make the Steam Controller even better."
The best PC gaming controller
By Kimber Streams This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer's guide to the best technology. Read the full article here. After putting in 15 hours of research and testing—in addition to hundreds of hours gaming on controllers in years past—and enlisting the help of an experienced panel of gamers, we found that the Sony DualShock 4 Wireless Controller (yes, the one that comes with the PlayStation 4) is the best gaming controller to use with your computer. In fact, we concluded that all the best PC controllers are console controllers. But a gaming controller is a highly personal object, and your preferences may differ based on your hand size, gaming style, and operating system. If you already own a controller that you love, you probably don't need to buy a new one.
Make your own accessories for the Steam controller
Valve wants to know what you'd do with its Steam controller if you had a chance to customize it. The gaming behemoth has released the CAD plans for it in an effort to spurn the community to put its own spin on the gamepad be it with accessories or other design ideas. All the external geometry files are available to download from the Steam Community page. "This allows you to create and share to your heart's content," Valve writes. "But you'll need to get in touch with Valve is you want to sell your creations."
Ben Heck's Steam controller-inspired concept
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-468517{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-468517, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-468517{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-468517").style.display="none";}catch(e){} The Ben Heck Show team were asked to check out Valve's Steam Controller, so we took this as an opportunity to see how the controller works and bring PC gaming to the console masses. The team uses it as inspiration to create a gaming controller for the living room. Karen, Felix and Ben work together using a Teensy, hall effect sensors, clay and metal cutting (with some sewing) to let you kick back and enjoy a game of Quake on the sofa. Do it yourself on the element14 community where we post behind the scenes content, project files and you can talk with the Show's team!
Street Fighter V is coming to SteamOS
Capcom's Street Fighter V is coming to Valve's SteamOS with full support for the company's Steam Controller. The franchise's first new series since 2008 will also be the first to make an appearance on the Linux-based operating system. The decision is quite a coup for Valve. It's positioning SteamOS and Steam Machines as the friendly face of PC gaming; a legitimate living-room replacement for a console.The long-awaited brawler is due to hit PlayStation 4 and PC on February 16th. It's unclear when the SteamOS port will be ready, or if it'll be able to take advantage of the cross-platform multiplayer features already announced for PC and PlayStation 4. One thing we do know is that Steam Controller support is baked into the Street Fighter V beta, which runs from today through to December 20th.
Steam Controller's new trick is designed for strategy games
By default, the haptic touchpads that define Valve's Steam Controller are just thumb-friendly fill-ins for a proper mouse -- but that's not all they can do. Thanks to a new Steam client beta update, the Steam Controller's signature touchapds can now do something now standard PC mouse can: instantly warp your cursor anywhere on the screen at the touch of a thumb.
Steam Controller gives disabled player one-handed 'Skyrim' controls
Valve's Steam Controller, like PC gaming in general, is highly customizable. Whether you think its large, circular trackpads are an annoyance or a revolution, there are plenty of ways to tweak how they perform in-game. One thoughtful user, Chris Hepburn, has remapped the buttons in Skyrim to help a disabled player fully control their adventurer one-handed. The right haptic pad controls the camera, while tilting the controller up, down, left and right handles character movement. The right trigger is used both to attack and defend, depending on whether you tap or hold with your finger. The A, B, X and Y buttons have been left untouched, while tapping the left analog stick changes your immediate weapons. Hepburn says the control scheme works best with a cushion for support -- reaching for the analog stick and waggling the controller can get a little tiresome otherwise. The Reddit community has suggested he make a left-handed alternative too -- anything that makes games more accessible is a worthwhile endeavour in our books. Top work, Hepburn.
We hate Valve's Steam Controller because it's different
My stomach tied itself into a knot as I read the gaming community's first impressions of Valve's final Steam Controller. "It's cheap feeling," many of them said, "difficult and frustrating to use." Forum posts, tweets and reviews all bemoaned how different the touchpads felt compared to traditional analog sticks, accusing it of fixing something that wasn't broken.The general consensus seemed to be that the Steam Controller was a mistake: A drastic, unnecessary step away from the tried and true layout of the 16-button, dual-analog gamepad standard. I felt betrayed and even a little offended -- but it wasn't Valve's experimental gamepad that let me down (I love that little thing), it was the gaming community that decided to turn a cold shoulder to innovation.
Playdate: Trying out Steam Machines and Valve's new controller
For years, Valve's been teasing us with the promise of a new kind of gaming device: a PC that lives in your entertainment center, outperforms traditional consoles and has more games available for it than you can count. Now it's finally here: I have a Steam Machine in my house, and I'm going to share it with you. Join me and Tim Seppala as we put the Alienware Steam Machine, its Linux-based SteamOS and the Valve Steam Controller through their paces. The fun starts right here in this post, on Twitch.tv/joystiq and on the Engadget gaming homepage at 6PM ET (3PM PT).
Alienware Steam Machine review: A gaming PC for your living room
I laughed when the rumors started back in 2012: "Valve is building a PC-based game console for living rooms." Sure it is, I thought. Imagine my shock when "Steam Machines" turned out to be real. The project promised a bizarre, revolutionary controller, a Linux-based operating system designed specifically to play PC games and in-home game streaming for titles that required Windows to run properly. The proposal was unbelievable, but it's finally here; it's real. As of today, I have an Alienware Steam Machine nestled in my entertainment center that delivers on almost everything those original rumors promised. Let's talk about that.
Valve wants the Steam community to build its own controllers
Valve is all about fan service. And with "over 125 million active users" in its Steam base, that's a lot of varying expectations to meet. This month, the secretive Bellevue, Washington-based video game developer (Portal, Half-Life) is about to finally bring to market a suite of its Steam Machines, a console-like living room solution for its PC-gaming base. The hardware rollout's been a long time coming for Valve -- the original Steam Machine announcement was made back in September 2013 -- but at least one aspect of it has been very public: the evolution of the Steam Controller. And its design is about to, quite literally, be put in the hands of consumers. "Anytime we've let the community get involved in the construction, the creation, the modification of things we've created, it always worked out fantastically," says Valve designer Robin Walker, speaking at the company's headquarters. "It was always better. It would be utterly bizarre if, for some reason, that wasn't the case for hardware."
Valve's final Steam Controller is still missing something
I spent roughly 10 minutes with the final Steam Controller at GDC 2015, playing snippets of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, The Talos Principle and Unreal Tournament on various Steam Machines. The body of the controller is wonderful to hold. Two long, clickable pads running along the backside of the handles, right where a player's middle and ring fingers lie, would be a welcome addition to any existing gamepad. Plus, the final controller adds a single analog stick on the left side. This makes the design more familiar overall, but with a trackpad replacing a second analog stick, the final Steam Controller remains what it always has been: awkward.
Valve's Steam Controller now has a thumbstick
It seems like every time we see Valve's Steam Controller, it gets a little more traditional. First the company abandoned the gamepad's ambitious touchscreen for eight buttons (a makeshift d-pad and the standard X, Y, B and A toggles) -- now it seems to be trading in four of those for an analog stick. Both SteamDB and a user on the Facepunch forums pulled the above image the company's latest Steam client beta, revealing a controller almost identical to the company's current iteration save for the aforementioned change.
Valve: don't expect to buy a Steam Machine until 2015
Looking forward to putting a gaming PC in your entertainment center? Keep waiting: Valve says it doesn't expect to officially launch its Steam Machine until 2015. The delay was announced in a rather casual blog post, and the update is loosely worded -- it's a "release window," not a promise. The quality of the controller seems to be the main thing holding back the release: Valve says its getting a substantial amount of feedback. "It means we'll be able to make the controller a lot better," the company writes. "Of course, it's also keeping us pretty busy."
