It’s not the clearest photo, but it clearly has both 2 thumb sticks and 2 track pads.
It could just be my screen, but that render is hard AF to decipher. Here’s a quick n dirty curves manipulation to get better contrast.
Those trackpads better have damn good palm reject because getting to those thumbsticks without brushing the trackpads will be impossible for many people.
People were saying that about the steam deck before it came out. Maybe some people have had issues, but anecdotally I’ve literally never heard one complaint about that from someone who actually used the device. The way the joystick is elevated above the pad your palm really shouldn’t touch it
The steam deck does
The steam deck already does in my experience!
Aside from I don’t think that will actually be an issue, the thumb sticks are likely to have touch sensitivity on top like the steam deck ones have. So they can just disable the TouchPad anytime the thumb stick is being touched.
Again, though. I don’t think it will be an issue with your palms.
Makes sense that it would match the inputs on the Steam Deck.
Give us the circle pads back! Just keep making the steam controller actually, with another back paddle, hall effect stick… Damn squares.
Honestly not having a dpad and second thumbstick is a deal breaker for me on the original steam controller, it means that most games with built in controller support don’t work well without switching to a custom or community layout. I think having a “normal” controller layout + trackpads/etc is necessary for the controller to succeed.
Additionally, having this layout means it will match the Steam Deck, which should make all control profiles interchangable.
“Additionally, having this layout means it will match the Steam Deck, which should make all control profiles interchangable.”
Additionally an order of magnitude more indie devs who don’t have the cash for a steam deck could pick up used/new steam controllers for not too money and that will inveitably lead to an order of magnitude more devs actually trying out their game using steam deck control schemes and I think that will be hard to overstate in impact longterm on gaming… especially because transformative, revolutionary new gaming experiences almost exclusively come from these kinds of developers.
Look at the anemic evolution of VR games, it is because the developers who could innovate and grow the medium with the next big VR hit is sitting in the bedroom of their parents house making a different game because neither them or any of their friends can afford VR goggles.
Square pads are where it’s at until you start playing on a round TV screen. Besides, it’s way easier to set up hockey buttons in a square Touch Pad than a round one.
I love it. Absolutely buying one.
Looks good. I just hope they bring back two-stage triggers, as those are missing from the Steam Deck.
What’s a two-stage trigger? Analogue until it’s all the way down, then a click (like the GameCube)?
This is correct, linear trigger with a click at the end very useful in desktop mode to have it slow the mouse movement with a trigger pull and then the trigger click for the mouse click.
You haven’t just been using the TouchPads in desktop mode?
The Deck triggers don’t have a physical switch at the end, but Steam Input does have soft pull and full pull mappings as well as settings to change when and how they activate.
Not quite the same as you have no tactile feed back on when you are about to enter the full pull part.
Oh that’s cool, I’d not even considered using it to control a mouse
I love my Steam Controller. I still use it majority of the time over my playstation, nintendo, and xbox controllers because of the touchpads.
But, I didn’t like using the touchpads on the Deck because of the size, shape, and orientation making it a regression for maining the touchpads for the games I play. So not surprised by the leak, since Valve would obviously be better off focusing on making the ergonomics better for joystick users than touchpad users. Still let down because it’ll mean for touchpad focused users like me Steam Controller is the only touchpad centric controller on the market with great ergonomics, size with 40mm concave pads, and circular shape for more consistent swipes.
But, it is discontinued and the gyro feels aged compared to the options out there. Will still be using it though from the looks of it for years to come hoping for an eventual dual pad centric controller from some niche group.
It would be cool if they made the next steam controller have two versions which are exactly the same both with two touchpads and with two with joysticks except one has the touchpads in the prime ergonomic spot on top the other with the two joysticks in the prime ergonomic spot.
I imagine a decent amount of people would like the “subpar” placement of their preferred inputs too because there is such a variety of hand shapes and sizes.
I would be so happy if that happened, but I think Valve has moved away from touchpad centric layouts. I wouldn’t be surprised if there aren’t touchpad enthusiasts involved
There’s little signs here and there with the placement and shape, but also signs that people at Valve don’t use stuff like dpad modeshift with an inverted outering bind for 5 click inputs over the default 1 click that long time Steam Controllers love. With the biggest sign coming from not separating soft press and regular click for the touchpads in the new Steam Input.
Leading to having to use stuff like action layers on the Deck because regular click pressure can’t be set without soft press to set up the touchpad for 5 click functions. Not ideal with how action layers can sometimes get stuck between layers. https://imgur.com/a/b1wyHEK
Ok clearly you know more about this than me, but I grew up using an xbox controller, I prefer it over touchpads by 1000% percent (with gyro on) but the touchpads are still integral to all of the complex steam deck bindings I have used and those I have made myself. Whether the touchpads are used for configurable virtual menus or as mouse and movement inputs, people are heavily using the touchpads. I hope they dont mess it up for touchpad users though.
I think Valve won’t deliver for touchpad primary users. Just not possible to fit in 40mm circular touchpads and an additional dpad and joystick without making the controller comically larger. Even smaller touchpads end up compromised to accommodate the comfort of dpad and facebutton access for joystick users. Controller would need to go modular which I highly doubt Valve would do.
There’s been proposals from dual touchpad users to try to accommodate dual joysticks with joystick in place of where the facebuttons are on the Steam Controller, and facebuttons located in an arrangement similar to the chell prototype.
But dual joystick users are generally unwilling to compromise not only on the joysticks, but also the traditional diamond cluster facebuttons too. Touchpad users are so desperate they’d probably jump at the chance to get a controller that only had 40mm circular touchpad with a design meant for primary usage even if it didn’t have any face buttons.
So best case scenario for dualpad users at this point is hoping a standalone gyro module comes out that can be stuck onto any controller so at least the gyro experience is upgraded for them. Alpakka standalone gyro would be a dream. Or the Steam Deck controller has touchpads connected by long flexible cables so a 3d printed shell that moves the touchpads into a better position could be used. Or by some magic it could be replaced with 40mm cirque glidepoint circle touchpads.
I grew up using xbox, playstation, and nintendo controllers too and 360 was my main controller on the PC until the Steam Controller came out and I became sold by this gyro touchpad demo that blew me away because I was amazed by how fast the camera was whipped around along with use of gyro in place of aim assist. Been using joystick controllers all my life so experienced with both, and I never felt lacking when it came to joystick controller options as I do for dual touchpad options which is why I’m not much excited by another joystick centric controller even if it throws in touchpads that are just slightly better than the dualsense.
This seems like a prototype that they can make using the parts from the current deck.
I’m not sure the two square pads make sense on an actual controller, and I feel like those thumbsticks would be just out of comfortable reach.
I remember seeing the Steam Deck and thinking “the button placement is really weird, none of this looks comfortable”. Then when I took it in my hands for the first time, everything made sense.
It mostly does.
As someone with big hands, I can’t use the touchpads comfortably without scooting my grip downwards in a way that makes it precarious and less than comfortable.
I have a similar problem with the Index controllers. My thumb is too long to comfortably rest on any of the controls if I grip the grip where you’re supposed to to be able to strap your hand in.
Good economics is supposed to work for everyone, and I’ve yet to try a valve hardware product that fully pulls it off. Maybe the first controller did, but I haven’t tried that one.
It seems to me like the thumbsticks are in the same ergonomic location as on a Playstation controller, and the trackpads are just in the empty space that would otherwise be there. I’m fully into it even if this is what it looks like when complete
To me it looks like they’ve shoved the joysticks up where the trackpad is on playstation controllers. If they haven’t, that’s even worse.
There’s nothing below the joysticks on the playstation controller, because that area isn’t within comfortable reach for your thumbs.
Sure you can put stuff there, but bending your fingers there isn’t fun. That’s already true for some users when using the trackpads on the deck.
Looks about the same layout as the steam deck, and it’s great on there. Dunno about the pads not being squared up, though. Dunno that I would like that, even if it would make the pads easier to reach, I still might rather have them squared up.
Or since they are right next to each other, it could be just one big touch surface.
The deck isn’t great, it works for some people, and is still really good for the rest, but the touch pads are pretty awkward for a lot of us. If the new valve controllers ergonomics are equivalent to the deck, it won’t be worth ditching the DS5 for me.
“…it clearly has both 2 thumb sticks and 2 track pads.”
Hell yes, I am very bullish on the two thumb sticks and two touchpads being the controller format that will establish the steam deck/handheld gaming pc as the future of gamepads.
It won’t necessarily be a quick, all at once change, but that is because it is a strategic longterm play to reframe what a gamepad is, what its limitations are, and what kind of games can be played with a gamepad.
It will be the kind of thing people look back and point to as the beginning of the whole industry shifting into a new paradigm where playing cool indie games with a gamepad is something people associate with pc gaming first, console gaming second.
They just better have a gyro sensor in there too!
Down voted for the Twitter sauce. We can do better, people.
He’s a well known steam data miner, it’s not just a random Twitter user claiming to have a leak.
Screenshot it and link to twitter in the post body, so no one has to visit the cancer-site.
Agreed. I can’t access Twitter because its blocked (through some plugins). I think sotwe can display posts without using Twitter directly (not sure if this is a good site, literally just found it): https://www.sotwe.com/SadlyItsBradley
The thumb sticks seem high. Not sure it’d be fun to use
This thing looks almost as big as The Duke.
I’ve pretty much been asking for a steam deck without a screen, so if this leak is accurate than I for one am fucking STOKED
@Fubarberry Sadly caving to the need to have so many different inputs much like the Steam Deck, it looks much less elegant and striking than the original Steam Controller. Like it’s trying to be several different things in one package instead of the bold new single direction of the original SC.
Yeah, I find the controller disappointing as a Steam Controller user because I want a new touchpad centric controller for updated gyro with the old one not feeling smooth for high refresh rate displays.
The approach they went with is one that satisfies joystick users who aren’t really lacking for options when it comes to joystick controllers, but disappointing for the few half dozen users who main the touchpads and have only the option of the discontinued Steam Controller. The Deck pads were a let down for me with the ergonomics, placement, size, and shape so they didn’t end up being a good touchpad successor for my use case opting for the joysticks when I use the Deck.
I’m not surprised with the more mainstream direction they went. Just disappointed but I expected to be disappointed.
I’m pretty surprised nobody seems to like the Deck’s touchpads. Yes they’re a bit of a compromise, but I have been playing hundreds of hours using the right trackpad for camera control on my Deck and they’re pretty great. Maybe my hands are weird.
On the Steam Controller I use the touchpads for
With all the swiping and clicking I do in combination with the back button usage the touchpad placement led to putting strain on my hands. I don’t feel that discomfort with the joysticks, which feel comfortable in its placement and reachability of all the inputs around it.
And the 180 consistency I have hard time replicating with my natural swipe pattern despite adjusting the rotation in Steam Input, so I have to do corner to corner swipes due to Valve going with a square over a circle. The layout is one where I’m having to force my hand out of what would naturally feel comfortable.
Non concave? Square trackpads? Clear preference to analog sticks? This seems like a worse Xbox controller on the surface. Unless the ergonomics are somehow amazing I would be hesitant to buy it (and I own an original steam controller).
I approve.
