Valve Announces Steam Controller 317
Today Valve unveiled their third and final announcement about living room gaming: a Steam controller. The company made the determination that existing gamepads simply weren't good enough for bringing PC games to the living room, so they made their own. Instead of having directional pads or thumb sticks, the Steam controller has two circular trackpads. The trackpads are also clickable, and Valve claims they provide much higher fidelity than any previous controller trackpad. Valve also eschewed the traditional 'rumble' feedback mechanism: "The Steam Controller is built around a new generation of super-precise haptic feedback, employing dual linear resonant actuators. These small, strong, weighted electro-magnets are attached to each of the dual trackpads. They are capable of delivering a wide range of force and vibration, allowing precise control over frequency, amplitude, and direction of movement." The center of the controller holds a clickable touchscreen. "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." The design also breaks up the common diamond-shaped button layout, instead putting the A B X Y buttons at the corners of the touchscreen. The controller is designed to be hackable, and Valve will "make tools available that will enable users to participate in all aspects of the experience, from industrial design to electrical engineering." The controller is being beta tested concurrently with the Steam Machines they announced on Wednesday, so you can expect them to be on sale in 2014.
Re:Today's Slashvertisement brought to you by... (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyway, isn't the implication with "slashvertizing" that someone has posted a story to their own product? Pretty sure this was posted out of genuine interest, not financial interest.
Re:What wrong with a wireless keyboard and mouse? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This actually looks really unusable (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't mind the trackpads, they could be alright. Maybe. But the fact that they expect you to alternately press buttons with either hand makes me feel like it could be hard to simultaneously move and act in a game.(This must be how lefties feel all the time)
Looking at the controller images, I'd be worried about triggering the touchpad while my hand is traveling to a button. WHy not put the buttons to the side?
The hackable nature of the controller sounds pretty cool, though and the haptic "speaker surface" like touchpads sound like they'd make some very awesome interfaces to play around with.
Re:Ugh, cant they use a PS2/PS3 like controller? (Score:5, Insightful)
The idea is to try and create an experience that's close to the precision of a keyboard and mouse. No console controller offers this.
I'm actually really happy about this. This is the kind of innovation controllers have been needing for a very long time. I can pretty much guarantee that PS5 and, uh, Xbox Two? will employ controllers with this kind of tech.
Looking at the thing. (Score:2, Insightful)
I like what Steam is doing here (Score:5, Insightful)
I just hope it doesn't flop.
Re:What wrong with a wireless keyboard and mouse? (Score:2, Insightful)
No problem! You can do that too!
What you have here is more choices.
Re:DRM DRM DRM (Score:5, Insightful)
No, I refuse to mod up. It's not trolling, but it lacks a meaningful insight. Steam approaches the DRM question from a different direction by detaching game ownership from physical devices entirely.
When you buy a disk, and have an install limit, or an offline game, with an always online requirement, it turns the thing you think you have into something less valuable, and uses a legal fiction to justify it. Steam gives you a person license that you can use as part of an account independent of the machine on which its installed, with some flexibility regarding internet access and physical media. It's a license that actually acts like a license, you can use it freely, yourself. It treats the underlying legal fiction as actually representative of usage, rather than an excuse to limit you.
Re:I can only say one thing... (Score:5, Insightful)
It has tons of buttons that don't require moving the hands at all.
I think you're completely wrong.
Re:This actually looks really unusable (Score:5, Insightful)
As opposed to the entirely smooth surface of your mobile, it looks like these have concentric ridges to solve just your problem; they give a tactile map of where the center is.
Re:It incorporates some interesting concepts, but. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:This actually looks really unusable (Score:5, Insightful)
If my experience with trackpad controls on phone games is anything to go by, I think it's a very bad idea.
where those phone games, "built around a new generation of super-precise haptic feedback, employing dual linear resonant actuators"?
no? then your experience is invalid.
honestly, i look at it this way. It might work. It might suck. either way, it's just a controller. i already have a system to use it with it. So, pending some horrible hands on reviews, i'll probably just pick one up and see for myself.
Re:This actually looks really unusable (Score:4, Insightful)
Lefty here. It's actually not so bad. I suspect that this is part of why the traditional layout spaces them similarly to the ends of a D-pad: you righties don't seem to have any trouble using that, and for us lefties, it's a similar story with the buttons.
But I am concerned with this splaying them out over the corners of the center touch screen. It could have some advantages in cases where you're expected to alternate between different buttons, but on the whole I can't see it being all that comfortable.
Not sure how this is going to work... (Score:3, Insightful)
Most of the games I've played by controller expect that you'll be using an XBox360 controller, so the game is set up expecting you to have the same types of controls and buttons in the same locations for two-handed operations. Drastically changing what and where everything is will only result in a controller that is unusable for most of the games it was created for.
Reminds me of the Intellivision controller (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What's the point? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Today's Slashvertisement brought to you by... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:how about a keyboard and a mouse... (Score:4, Insightful)
SteamOS is Linux based but I doubt it's going to be anything even Stallman would call GNU/Linux.
Everything I've seen makes this sound like it's more aimed at being a 'Console which runs PC games' than a normal computer. I'd expect it to load into a 'Big Picture' mode Steam client, and allow the user to launch their games and specially-modified applications from that which could well run as overlays like the existing Steam browser. Whether this machine even needs a command line is debatable, it shouldn't need GCC (I'd expect a fully binary-based OS) or a full-featured window and compositing desktop like Gnome.
Re:DRM DRM DRM (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:DRM DRM DRM (Score:5, Insightful)
The big problem with Steam is the restriction on simultaneously using two games in one library. My wife likes to play too, and those games, under California law, are as much hers as they are mine, no matter what the Terms-of-Use say.
So I need to make a new account for every game I buy, and it's a major pain in the ass to manage.
Re:This actually looks really unusable (Score:5, Insightful)
If my experience with trackpad controls on phone games is anything to go by, I think it's a very bad idea.
where those phone games, "built around a new generation of super-precise haptic feedback, employing dual linear resonant actuators"?
no? then your experience is invalid.
honestly, i look at it this way. It might work. It might suck. either way, it's just a controller. i already have a system to use it with it. So, pending some horrible hands on reviews, i'll probably just pick one up and see for myself.
Thank you! For finally bringing some perspective into this conversation.
The trend nowadays seems to be to first trash and ridicule anything new or innovative that anyone does. Or better still, list out the 10 reasons why something like this should never have been built in the first place. Jeez man, maybe we should just send some people over to work in the patent office - maybe, we can harness all the negativity to solve the "stupid patent" problem.
I have no clue if this controller will really work well in real life or not. But we can definitely say
- This is indeed very innovative. For the first time, someone truly thought out of the box and redesigned a game controller from the ground up, instead of just adding more haptics. Well.. the Wii controller notwithstanding.
- Love the attempt at how they've translated the "keyboard WASD + mouse" way of navigation in an FPS to a controller. Might *just* work. More power to you, Valve!
- Sure, it will have a fairly steep learning curve and people will complain like hell, but hey, so does any other control mechanism.
- For me, the litmus test will be playing Counter Strike using these controllers. Or maybe I'm getting old, but it still remains the benchmark game for me as far as an FPS is concerned.
P.S. Isn't Steam Engine a better name than Steam Box?
Re:Half life 3!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Looking at the thing. (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, obviously they do. It looks like they've taken a lot of care in getting rid of problems that, up till now, have plagued trackpads.
Why don't you at least give it a try before bellowing out your uninformed opinion about how much you dislike it?
Re:DRM DRM DRM (Score:2, Insightful)
And GOG does all that without DRM.
Re:don't speak it (Score:2, Insightful)
There's DRM on Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo consoles. It hasn't stopped people from playing games for the last few consoles generations.
It's still SHIT (Score:2, Insightful)
It still limits use for legitimate users and creates an unnecessary headache for them. Accepting STEAM is like saying "oh well it's excrement in my soup, but at least it's only bird excrement, not dog excrement". You're still going to get sick you fuckwit!
Re: This actually looks really unusable (Score:5, Insightful)
PC gamers aren't interested, they still need help from keyboard+mouse combinations to aid them in games that actually require precision to play well .
FTFY
Rob