🎮 Valve announced the $99 Steam Controller will be available on May 4
🕹️ Features dual touchpads, TMR thumbsticks, four rear grip buttons, gyro controls, and capacitive grip sensors
⚡ Unique wireless receiver puck that magnetically attaches to the gamepad for charging
👾 Only works with devices running on Steam and games running through Steam
⌨️ Steam Controller acts as a mouse and keyboard in BIOS menus and the command prompt
The Valve Steam Controller will officially be available starting on May 4 for $99.
This controller essentially takes all the controls from the Steam Deck and squeezes everything into a smaller peripheral. This includes two touchpads, the symmetrical button layout, four rear grip buttons, and gyro controls. Valve has also upgraded the thumbstick with TMR sensors that are drift-proof and capacitive grip sensors that will come more into play with Valve’s upcoming Steam Frame VR headset.
Another thing that makes the Steam Controller unique is its connection puck, which also charges the gamepad when magnetically attached to the bottom of the peripheral. The Steam Controller puck is USB-wired to your PC at all times, so it also gives you a convenient way to charge the controller.
The only thing to keep in mind is that the Steam Controller only works with Steam – this isn’t a PC or Bluetooth controller. Whatever device hoping to use the Steam Controller with needs to run Steam in some way, whether it’s the Steam app on a PC, the native OS on a Steam Deck, or the Steam Link app on Android or iOS. This Steam requirement also extends to games as well, so you’ll need to add non-Steam games like Alan Wake 2, Genshin Impact, and Star Citizen to Steam in order to play them with this controller.
The Steam Controller also features some nice conveniences, like a “Find My Controller” feature that makes the Steam Controller ring like a phone to help you locate it. Lastly, the Steam Controller also acts as a keyboard and mouse even at the BIOS level, so you can navigate deep PC system menus and even work in the command prompt.
At $99, the Valve Steam Controller sits somewhere between the $59 Xbox Controller and the $129 Xbox Elite Series 2. Of course, the Steam Controller can do a lot more than your average controller with its dual touchpads, grip sensors, and keyboard/mouse function, but this peripheral is really only useful if you do all of your PC gaming through Steam.
Original article follows below…
👀 Reviews and a large cache of review shots of the Steam Controller have leaked online
📆 A now-hidden review article from the Japanese website 4Gamer points to a May 4 release date for the controller
🤔 The news comes after Valve had uploaded an unboxing video of the controller to Steam and received large shipments of unknown PC controllers
💰 Valve is also reportedly considering launching the Steam Machine and Frame sooner than anticipated and taking a loss on initial units to get momentum going
We’ve got more proof that the Steam Controller’s launch is virtually inevitable, as reviews have leaked alongside photos.
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A now-hidden review article from the Japanese website 4Gamer points to a May 4 release date, putting it as early as next week.
We’ve also seen a slew of photos from the website emerge online, showing detailed review shots, plus pictures of how the controller integrates into SteamOS with Japanese settings menus on a Steam Deck.
The pictures also show the controller from varying angles, its box contents (including the magnetic charging puck) and size comparisons to current Xbox Series X and PS5 DualSense controllers, putting its size on par in terms of thickness against the DualSense, although is slightly taller. It also weighs 292g according to the images.
There have also reportedly been hardware previews for the Steam Controller in the last week, so it makes sense for hands-on launch and review coverage to be prepared before the controller’s potential release date.
Things have been building for the Steam Controller’s release after Valve uploaded an unboxing video to Steam, which was spotted in its internal database, and public shipping manifests have shown large shipments of controllers in recent weeks.
All of these developments point to the fact that Valve is releasing the controller on its own as well as part of a bundle with the Steam Machine. A YouTube video from Techy Talk that has since been taken down suggested the controller will cost $99.99, for what it’s worth.
In official terms, we’ve still received no further word on the Steam Machine’s price, and we only know that both it and the Steam Frame VR headset will launch this year, with no further details on an exact window.
With this in mind, a report from Insider Gaming notes that Valve is debating releasing the Steam hardware lineup, with the Steam Machine and Steam Frame, all in one go, sooner than anticipated.
The article notes that “Valve is getting closer to confirming everything”, and that they’ve been “going back and forth internally on pricing and whether they would be willing to take a loss on the cost, at least in the short term”.
The report concludes that it’s “unclear” as to which decision Valve has taken for the entire hardware lineup, although it looks as if we’re going to be seeing the first part of it officially very soon.
Reece Bithrey is a journalist with bylines for Trusted Reviews, Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, TechRadar and more. He also has his own blog, UNTITLED, and graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in International History and Politics in 2023.
Kevin Lee is The Shortcut’s Creative Director. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam.