The net's been turned upside down with Valve's newly announced Steam machine and OS alongside it, not to mention a bizarre looking controller.
The Steam Controller can be used with either Steam Machines or the PC. If you are more comfortable with the mouse/keyboard combo, you will be able to keep using that combo with Valve’s Steam services.
The new controller features dual trackpads which, according to the company, is the “most prominent elements of the Steam controller.”
Operated by the player’s thumbs, each of the two circular trackpads “has a high-resolution trackpad as its base. It is also clickable, allowing the entire surface to act as a button, not unlike the analog sticks on the controllers for the Xbox 360 and PS3. The trackpads allow far higher fidelity input than has previously been possible with traditional handheld controllers. PC gamers, who are used to the input associated with PCs, will appreciate that the Steam Controller’s resolution approaches that of a desktop mouse.”
Moreover, FPS titles that are designed around precise aiming “within a large visual field” are also set to benefit from the trackpads’ high resolution and absolute position control.
On top of that, there’s an additional touch-enabled surface in the center of the controller that’s backed by a high-resolution screen. But the best thing about this controller? The fact that it can be used for all the titles in the Steam catalog, even ones not designed fro controller support.
“The whole screen itself is also clickable, like a large single button. So actions are not invoked by a simple touch, they instead require a click. This allows a player to touch the screen, browse available actions, and only then commit to the one they want. Players can swipe through pages of actions in games where that’s appropriate,” Valve adds.
“When programmed by game developers using our API, the touch screen can work as a scrolling menu, a radial dial, provide secondary info like a map or use other custom input modes we haven’t thought of yet.”
Valve also boasts about the “openness” of the controller by stating that the device was “designed from the ground up to be hackable.”
“Just as the Steam Community and Workshop contributors currently deliver tremendous value via additions to software products on Steam, we believe that they will meaningfully contribute to the design of the Steam Controller. We plan to make tools available that will enable users to participate in all aspects of the experience, from industrial design to electrical engineering,” it adds.
Check more about the Steam Game Controller here.
