Steam Controller announced by Valve

Valve has revealed its third new product for the year – and its a controller.

The Steam controller is a concept at the moment, but Valve has working prototypes and, as with Steam Machines and SteamOS, this will be shaped through communication with the gamers Valve wants to sell it to.

The controller is a completely different design to what we’re used to when looking at the Dualshock and Xbox controllers. The front lacks any analog sticks and only has seven buttons, two touchpads and two extra buttons that can be clicked when the touchpads are depressed.

Valve sees this design as unique and unlike anything else in the industry:

“We knew how to build the user interface, we knew how to build a machine, and even an operating system. But that still left input — our biggest missing link. We realized early on that our goals required a new kind of input technology — one that could bridge the gap from the desk to the living room without compromises,” the company said.

“Traditional gamepads force us to accept compromises. We’ve made it a goal to improve upon the resolution and fidelity of input that’s possible with those devices. ”

“The Steam controller offers a new and, we believe, vastly superior control scheme, all while enabling you to play from the comfort of your sofa. Built with high-precision input technologies and focused on low-latency performance, the Steam controller is just what the living-room ordered.”

Steam controller

The controller is designed to work with nearly every single game on the Steam client. Valve says that its testing has revealed that most games can be tricked into thinking its playing with a mouse and keyboard and that there is no performance loss moving from a keyboard and mouse to the Steam controller.

“The two trackpadsvare the most prominent feature,” Valve said.

“Driven by the player’s thumbs, each one has a high-resolution trackpad as its base. It is also clickable, allowing the entire surface to act as a button.”

“The trackpads allow far higher fidelity input than has previously been possible with traditional handheld controllers. Steam gamers, who are used to the input associated with PCs, will appreciate that the Steam Controller’s resolution approaches that of a desktop mouse.”

Steam controller design

Altogether, the controller packs in a total of sixteen buttons placed symmetrically, including two buttons depressable by your fingers underneath the controller. The controller’s software will revert to a default setup to mimic most of the functions of a keyboard and mouse in-game and this is a customisable setting. The trackpads can even accommodate for players used to the mouse in their left or right hands, making the switch easier.

But that doesn’t touch on the issue of feedback.

Valve has also done work in this area and feels that conventional rumble technology isn’t that interesting. The company has partnered with a hardware manufacturer to use haptic feedback machines underneath each touchpad.

“The haptics enable a larger range of sensations for both your hands and fingertips and allow for greater control and precision,” the company said.

Valve even feels that some people will just be naturally better at setting up the controller for certain games than others and will allow users to upload and share their button configurations for different games.

Steam controller example setup

In addition, the controller is also easily “hackable”, according to Valve, being as easy to take apart as Nvidia’s Shield. The company believes that, through the beta testing (limited to the people who also get the Steam Machine prototype), there will be enough user interaction and feedback to help shape the controller for any gamer before the final design and specification is settled on – although, personally, I want one already.

Valve says that the controllers should be available at the same time as its Steam Machines (expected for a 2014 launch) and they will play nicely with Steam clients on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

At this stage its unknown who Valve’s hardware partner will be and no details on the touch screen in the middle are forthcoming, save for the fact that it will be multi-functional.

Valve says it has no more announcements for now and will be engaging with the community from this point on to help shape the future of the Steam universe.