Valve offers a first look at the new Steam Controller

By Ryan Fleming Published October 11, 2013

valve offers a fist look at the new steam controller — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Although it may not have had quite the impact as Valve’s other recent announcements, specifically the Steam OS and Steam Machines, the new Steam Controller is in many ways just as revolutionary, especially when it comes to adapting PC games with a default keyboard and mouse configuration to a gamepad. Valve has released a new video highlighting the controller in action, showing some of what it can do.

The controller is designed to act like any controller, but it can also easily be mapped to replace a mouse and a keyboard. There will be games that are made specifically with the Steam Controller in mind, and mimicking a game made for a gamepad should present no problems. It should work on most games without issues.

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In the video below, the focus is the controller’s ability to map key and mouse commands. To highlight this, the games Portal, Civilization, Counter Strike: Go, and Papers, Please are featured. That is a fairly broad spectrum of games and game types, and the controller seems to handle them all with no problem.

Of course, seeing it in a video is one thing and using it is another. Analog sticks are successful for a reason, and many pro gamers even prefer thumb sticks that are raised beyond the standard configuration to give them better sensitivity. Still, there is no denying the controller is intriguing. We’ll have to get our hands on it to know more.

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PC Gaming

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Ryan Fleming is the Gaming and Cinema Editor for Digital Trends. He joined the DT staff in 2009 after spending time covering…

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