So, if a company says “a limited quantity of orders will be shipped on October 16th, weeks in advance of our official launch”… does that mean October 16th is its release date? What about its official launch date of November 10th? Also, why am I trying to make sense of time when the subject is Valve?
Either way, the new Steam Controller has been put up for pre-order and given a release date. The input device will sell for $50 USD, $59.99 CDN, or £40 GBP depending obviously on where you are. It also has a finalized design that is very similar to the Xbox layout, with thumbpads replacing the d-pad and right analog stick. Going to the device's Steam page will send you to a gaming retailer to make the pre-order (wat???). I get EB Games, because I'm Canadian, while Americans get GameStop, which is the same company anyway.
Unlike previous Steam Controller designs, the left thumbpad is shaped like a cross, which I would like to see used as a d-pad because most PC controllers that I've used are either terrible at it, or are horrible at everything else. The video also uses the left thumbpad as a scroll mechanism, but I wonder what other functionality Valve allows because I have yet to find a single mouse driver that can do everything. For instance, Razer's is unable to record mouse scroll (up, down, left, or right) events in macros.
The rear of the controller is very interesting. The main trigger is analog up to the end, which is a tactile switch. These can be bound to independent actions, although you will obviously need to have the maximum analog command play well with the click command. The given possibility is for first person shooters where you use the analog part to bring up your iron sights while you fire with the click. I could also imagine a racing game where the throttle is analog and clicking at the end activates a boost. There are also buttons in the grips for your ring and pink finger to activate. It also looks like there's shoulder buttons above the triggers, but I can't quite tell. This would basically yield six shoulder buttons, along with all of the face inputs, which is about the max that I could imagine.
The official launch is November 10th, but a pre-release run is shipping on October 16th. The Steam Link is supposedly also available at the same time for the same price, which is basically a streaming target for Steam on the TV.
I wonder if it can be kept
I wonder if it can be kept clean easily.
Went ahead and prepurchased a
Went ahead and prepurchased a Steam Link and two of the controllers. I’ve got 600+ games in my Steam Library, so it will be interesting to see how well the Steam Link works. I’d love to bypass getting a SteamOS box and just let my gaming rig/work desktop do all the heavy lifting and just stream it to the Living Room. We’ll see.
Love the idea of both the
Love the idea of both the Steam Link and the controller. Too bad it’s so locked down into Steam. Where’s the love for DRM-free?
Well, if it works just like
Well, if it works just like it does for streaming from a gaming rig to a laptop that you don’t game on which is hooked up to the TV, then all it involves is simply doing the “add it as a non-steam game” and it should work. I’ve read that some people have added “explorer.exe” to it and were able to stream entire desktop.
Strange, I didn’t get
Strange, I didn’t get re-directed at all when I pre-ordered my controller. I went through the whole purchase right in steam.
Does anyone know what the
Does anyone know what the power source will be? Does it use a built-in battery, or will it use something like replaceable AAs?
AA batteries. It can be
AA batteries. It can be plugged in with a MicroUSB cable, which is unfortunately not included but you probably have dozens of them anyway, to make it a wired controller.
Cool. I wonder how much
Cool. I wonder how much wireless range it will have. Right now, I run a 50 ft HDMI cable from my office to my living room and use a Xbox 360 wireless controller without a problem. I hope Bluetooth has the same range.
“I would like to see used as
“I would like to see used as a d-pad because most PC controllers that I’ve used are either terrible at it, or are horrible at everything else”
AMEN BROTHER, AMEN!!!!!!!
Can you imagine if you have
Can you imagine if you have any trouble with Valve hardware? Or if you have trouble with an account needed with Valve hardware? I mean, if you have a problem with it, you are probably absolutely fucked. They have about as much “support” as Google offers. That is to say, go fuck yourself. Come again!
On Steam Box units coming
On Steam Box units coming from OEMs, I would imagine that there is some additional support from the OEMs, and With Steam OS, all the OEMs could pool their support after the sale resources for the OS and the open source graphics API software(Vulkan, etc.), as their is no proprietary software in the down stream builds going to the consumer. Steam OS being derived from Debian, and using the Khronos industry standard APIs should be much more easily supported among the various OEMs that partner with Valve, and its Steam OS ecosystem. Having a gaming industry standard OS, could be a great support savings for all the OEMs, and they have no reason to not pool any customer service apparatus and share a single source of customer support for the software side of the support equation, hardware differences are another matter, but the individual OEMs can deal with their specific hardware.
The entire purpose of Steam OS is to provide a OS/Software ecosystem devoid of any third party proprietary OS maker’s 30% off the top on sales, other than what service the user has already subscribed to voluntarily, it also provides all of the turn key functionality and economy of scale of the Steam OS/client ecosystem, Like the console ecosystem does, while allowing the complete upgradability of the actual Steam Box hardware, as the hardware is basically made from the standard PC off the shelf hardware components. Steam Boxes if they are adhering to the Steam OS/hardware plan are PCs in their own right.
As for the Steam controllers bought directly from Steam, well Steam is becoming an OEM for that, the Steam streaming device, and possibly other hardware(VR, etc.), so the support will have to be there to go along with the product, including all warranty, and implied warranty service after the sale. Valve could possibility partner, or is currently doing business, with a third party for its directly branded hardware, and the third party OEM/contractor would assume the service after the sale responsibilities.
One thing is certain, it would be in Valve’s and the Steam Box OEM’s, as well the gaming companies’ best interest to pool their resources around the Steam OS ecosystem and not have any single entity in control of the gaming OS software ecosystem. The financial savings of having a free and open standardized gaming OS ecosystem can not be understated, including the ability of all the concerned parties to pool their software support ecosystems around a single standardized OS, and not be at the mercy of any proprietary OS software ecosystem. Steam OS could definitely be that standard, and allow for great savings among all hardware OEMs, just look at how well the android ecosystem is working for the mobile devices OEMs, and I do not think that M$ gets any of the action off of the full Linux based ecosystem, like it does around the Android VM/OS ecosystem, so the savings are greater within the Steam OS ecosystem.
Must be the only one who
Must be the only one who thinks the is a microsoft style evil anti PC development.
People want a console, they buy a console.
PC under the TV, just stick an m atx under it.
What PC gaming doesn’t need is loads of low end crap Steam box’s sitting under peoples tv, allowing game companies to continue crap porting of xbox and PS4 games.
No its not a M$ style EVIL,
No its not a M$ style EVIL, anti PC development! The Steam Boxes are nothing but a PC, and are built from off the shelf PC parts, and Steam OS is just another Debian distro, backed by Valve and a bunch of OEMs! How open can you get as far as devices can be! One could buy a ready made Steam OS based Steam Box with the OS factory installed, as well as the Steam client, and all the hard work is done for the technologically challenged, including the Steam client to give that turn key console gaming environment/software ecosystem, all while the steam boxes themselves are just a PC with all the upgradeability that the device’s form factor, motherboard, etc. will allow. Steam Boxes are the anti-console gaming PCs with the console level of ecosystem service, and with Steam OS being a Debian based distro, if you have the will, and the skills, you can roll your own Steam Box. Having OEM based and branded Steam Boxes will bring an economy of scale production efficiency to the Steam Box Ecosystem, and as that ecosystem builds, the hardware support options for Steam OS will multiply, and that will be good for Linux based gaming, and Linux as a desktop option. There will be plenty of people that will be dual booting Steam OS, with their favorite Linux productivity distro, and reserving the streamlined for gaming Steam OS for gaming without all the other OS bloat that gets in the way of the game. Some will dual boot with windows, steam boxes are PCs so that is fine, it’s not like Steam OS is a restricted console XBONE/PS4 type of gaming platform, with limited upgrade options, and equally limited software/OS options. That Low end crap you are taking about more than adequately describes the current crop of “Gaming” consoles, as you only get what the makers of the XBONE/PS4 makers allow you to have, with Steam Boxes you can have the latest CPU/SOC i7, paired with the fastest discrete GPU, it’s all according to your hardware budget. With the console cabal you can only take it or leave it, with the Steam Box hardware you get a gaming PC, with a console style software/games ecosystem, with all the hardware/software advantages.
Big question is still the
Big question is still the biggest question. The initial promisse was that the Steam Controller would be, after learning curve, better, more usable and as acurate as keyboard/mouse. Was that ever true and is that still the case?