Many might remember how, back in late 2015, Valve essentially tried to revolutionize conventional gaming controllers with its Steam Controller, which featured some standout features for its time, such as a trackpad for aiming and rear paddles.
But, instead of making waves within the market, it was a ship that, unfortunately, sank too quickly, leaving Microsoft and Sony’s utter dominance in the area. Since then, Valve found success in other areas, such as its VR Headset and, more recently, the Steam Deck. But the controllers? That was a closed chapter—at least until now.
The Steam Controller’s Second Coming Couldn’t Have Happened at a More Perfect Time
We all know the original Steam Controller was a weird piece of tech. Its design ditched the traditional right-side joystick for a customizable track page. It offered an insane level of customization via Steam, but it also had an unconventional layout that divided people’s opinions.
For most of its life, it just couldn’t generate enough sales, so Valve pulled the plug on the whole thing in 2019, not before giving Corsair and SCUF a massive middle finger for being patent trolls by slashing the controller’s price to $5 per unit and liquidating its entire stock—a pretty bold move, something that you just wouldn’t see today.
But since its untimely demise, the controller market hasn’t had a shakeup of any sort, being dominated by Microsoft and Sony’s controllers. Many may refuse to believe it, but there’s a problem with these two offerings.
While the Xbox Series controller is arguably one of the most comfortable devices to hold for long hours, the fact remains that it has largely remained unchanged for two generations now, three if you take a stretch and include the 360 controller too, with little innovation in between.
While boasting an insane level of features, the Dualsense controller has proven to be a rather delicate piece of hardware, with many reports of people experiencing stick drift and battery issues a short while after using it.
There are smaller companies, too, like 8BitDO, GameSir, Gulikit, and Anbernic, offering enough features at a competitive price point. These, however, have yet to be able to achieve the kind of mainstream success required to bring some change. That’s why, in this current landscape of cautious evolution, only Valve’s return could shake things up in a way only GabeN knows how.
Valve’s Steam Controller 2 Might Just Be Nearing the End of Its Testing Stage
As rumors from Insider Brad Lynch have pointed out, the company’s next attempt at a controller—codenamed Ibex—is already “being tooled” for mass production. The details are, admittedly, a little thin at the moment, but the fact remains that, yes, GabeN’s company is indeed giving the controller market a second shot.
When you think about it, it’s just the perfect time to get back in the game, too. Both Microsoft and Sony have already played their hands in this market and are busy working on other things, like getting their platforms in check, building a solid competitor to the Steam Deck, releasing good games, etc.
There’s clearly a gap in the market now for a controller that can innovate in a way that feels both reliable and functional. Imagine Hall Effect joysticks to eliminate drift, revamped trackpad (inspired by the Deck) for better precision, modular attachments such as a mini-keyboard for added functionality, and robust build quality that outlasts the competition.
If the Steam Controller 2 can deliver on even half of those things, it’ll already be a massive win for PC gamers. That said, price is going to play a critical role too.
To truly get a strike against all the other Market players, Valve needs to position the controller between between the $20-$30 offerings from budget brands and the $70 Xbox/DualSense models.
If the company plays its cards right, as it continues to do with the Steam Deck, we might just be in for a significant change within the controller space, and we, for one, can’t wait to see when that happens.
But with all that said, what are your thoughts on this? Would you be willing to give Valve’s new controller a shot? Let us know in the comments below!
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
