A gamepad that searches for a console

Don’t confuse the Steam Controller as a PC controller. Even though its primary function is to play PC games, Valve’s new gamepad communicates with Steam, and only Steam. This isn’t a standard controller for your PC, Android or iOS devices, and it’s certainly not compatible with any console on the market today, unless you count the Steam Deck handheld. To play a game with a Steam controller, you must open it with Steam. (More on this later).

Valve’s Steam Controller’s ultimate goal is to be compatible with the Steam Machine, a console that doesn’t yet have a public release date or price point. The Steam Machine will support 4K gaming at 60 fps with FSR, will come with 512GB or 2TB of SSD storage, and will work with the Steam Frame VR headset, as will the Controller. The new Steam Machine was supposed to drop earlier this year, fulfilling the long-promised dream of PC gaming by moving your entire Steam library to the couch in a compact but powerful box. Due to the memory shortage plaguing the tech industry, the machine and frame are not yet there, so the Steam controller is the first step in taking Valve’s hardware into the living room. It will be released on May 4, priced at $99.

The Steam Controller represents nearly 13 years of R&D, from its first iteration announced in 2013 to the launch of the Steam Deck in 2022, and the time to refine it clearly paid off.

The Steam Controller is a neat chonker of a gamepad with a wide, Duke-like face that holds the square music tracks below the standard analog buttons and face buttons. Despite its extra durability, the Steam Controller feels light, thin and balanced, even in my smaller-than-average hands. The grips are slim and have four circular buttons on the back, two on each side, which are very satisfying to click even when they’re not doing anything in-game. The bumpers, triggers, D-pad and face buttons are glossy black plastic, and all the edges of the controller are rounded, allowing for a smooth flow between the bumpers and triggers in particular. The trackpads don’t get in the way when you don’t need them, but when they’re in use, they’re incredibly responsive and impressive. They look and feel like the trackpads on Steam Deck, following your thumbs with little bubbles that pop up.

The Steam Controller uses tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) excitation rods, which are an advanced version of Hall effect rods, providing perfect accuracy and long-term stability without the possibility of drift. After a few days of use in all kinds of game genres, including competitive first-person shooters, they proved to be reliable and accurate. In terms of stick accuracy and feel, I find the Steam Controller to be similar to the Razer Wolverine V3 Pro, my favorite PC gamepad. I much prefer the toggles, rubber microswitches and clear clicks of Razer’s gamepad – but the Wolverine also costs about $100 more and doesn’t come with trackpad capabilities, so we’ll call it a wash.

One of the neat features of the Steam Controller is its charging and puck connection, which connects to your PC or Steam Deck via a USB cable and enables stable wireless play. The puck goes into the controller’s belly to charge, and when you move the gamepad’s contact point over it, it jumps up and holds on like a little suction cup. I don’t know if this behavior is an intentional sales pitch, but it certainly is for me. The Steam Controller also connects to devices via Bluetooth or cable, and in all settings it worked without a problem for me. Of course, Bluetooth mode has very high latency, so that’s mainly for phones and Steam Link gaming. The puck can support two Steam controllers simultaneously. Switching between Puck and Bluetooth mode is a simple matter of holding the right bumper and A or B, respectively, when you turn on the controller.

Pressing the power button with the Steam logo wakes up the pad, and pressing it twice while connected to a PC launches Steam in Large Image mode. The Steam Controller feels like a natural extension of Valve’s storefront, and with its matte black finish and bubble edges, it’ll be familiar to anyone who’s loved the Steam Deck over the past few years.

I tested the controller on my PC with Steam games and non-Steam games (added to my Steam library first, of course – seriously, more on that later), and in my living room with my Steam Deck running as a homemade, low-power machine. On PC I played Blake Manor Meeting, Creatures’ kitchen again OverwatchI also played on Steam Deck Blake Manor, A school of demons again Balatro. Whether connected via Bluetooth, puck or USB, the Steam Controller provided seamless playback and no noticeable lag. The distance from my couch to the puck placed behind my Steam Deck is about eight feet, and I didn’t feel the frame drop while playing as a Steam Machine owner. I also didn’t experience any battery issues, but that’s not surprising considering Valve’s claim that the gamepad has over 35 hours on a single charge. In my testing, the battery never registered a drain after hours of playtime, and I was happy to grab the charging puck whenever I wanted to set the controller down.

Valve notes that battery life may be lower when playing with Steam Frame. The Steam Controller has infrared LEDs for tracking, which will drain the battery very quickly. Some VR games may allow you to move your controller, as there are gyroscopic sensors in there as well. Since the Steam Frame isn’t out yet, I wasn’t able to test some of the more interesting features of the controller.

Even competitive keyboard and mouse players Overwatch in matches, I won games and got prizes, I passed my final test of admin skills. When it comes OverwatchIn particular I’m comparing the Steam Controller to Sony’s DualSense, and it feels remarkably similar. I do enjoy the Steam Controller’s smooth slide between the bumpers and triggers, though its haptic feedback is more subtle than the DualSense’s, lacking particularly analog sticks. Similar to the Steam Deck, I haven’t found a consistent use case for the trackpads on the Steam Controller, but I do appreciate their inclusion, accessibility feature, and the fact that they’re not otherwise distracting. Now, just add the Playdate crank and I’m really sold.

The Steam Controller is a clear and clear signal that Valve is joining the console wars, and perhaps with a patient and diligent design, it appears at a vulnerable time. Xbox is struggling with the current generation and is trying to redefine its place in the console market during a significant leadership shake-up, while Sony and Nintendo continue their regular hardware development cycles in an environment that is based less on choosing a platform every day. There’s currently room for a PC-based storefront to stake its claim in couch gaming, too voilahere is Valve with a Steam machine and a Steam controller.

Similar to how Valve is used Half-Life 2 to get people to download Steam in 2004, Steam Controller pushes players to fully integrate PC libraries into its native system. You will need to add games with their own launchers Overwatch, A hero, Minecraft again Fortnite in your Steam library before you can play them using a Valve controller. This is a minor inconvenience, as it only takes a few clicks to add a non-Steam game to your profile.

(Welcome back later). However, I don’t enjoy doing it. As I browsed through the files to add them Overwatch in my Steam library, I couldn’t help but think that it would have been very easy for Valve to add a switch that would allow the Steam Controller to interact with any PC game. Perhaps it’s a touch of counterintuitive distraction, but I loathe being forced into behavior designed to give the corporate market control over my work flow, especially in my personal areas.

Now more than ever, I value my ability to choose – which businesses I work with, where I store my software, how I play – and the Steam launcher requirement is another small extension of Valve’s incredible power in the PC gaming industry. It is very easy to say, most of my games are already on Steam, no problemand use the Controller as an excuse to bundle them all into a Valve launcher. Suddenly, Steam is where you start and end every era of games, rather than just most. Obviously and especially with the upcoming release of the Steam machine, this is the reality that Valve wants: a rich industry that is completely dependent on its DRM platform, the division of dirty income and unplanned unplanned testing. It is a situation that Microsoft, Apple or Epic also want for themselves, but the big difference is that this future is accessible to Valve, and the Steam Controller is a small part of the plan. If the willing and unforced monopoly support makes you bristle too, feel free to stick with 8BitDo.

Honestly, I get it. The Steam Controller does not come with the PC switch because it is not a PC controller. It’s for controlling Steam, the same service for PC and mobile games, and now it’s entering the living room scene. The Steam Controller is designed to follow you everywhere Steam is, for all your gaming needs on every screen forever and ever – and there’s something cool about that idea Brave New World Dry the way. A PC controller? That’s pretty limited, from Valve’s point of view.

Stepping into a corporate dystopia, the Steam Controller is a tough and nimble gamepad against the competition. For Valve diehards, trackpad fans and anyone whose biggest gaming hub is Steam. Which, to be clear, is only a large market that is poised for growth.