Valve Announces Its Open Steam GamePad / Controller

Written by Michael Larabel in Valve on 27 September 2013 at 01:02 PM EDT. 56 Comments
VALVE
Valve just revealed its third announcement of the week! After announcing the Linux-based SteamOS, then the SteamOS-powered Steam Machines game console, the Bellevue-based company just unveiled their own controller / gamepad!

The Steam Controller is a key part to their living room and console experience. This controller, among other features, has dual trackpacds, has a new generation of super-precise haptic feedback support, a touch screen, and multiple buttons. The Steam Controller also has a legacy mode where it just acts as a keyboard and mouse for games not optimized for this controller. The beta units are wired USB-based while the retail units will be wireless. The input device announcement was one of the announcements I anticipated for today. The retail version of the Steam Controller is expected for debut in 2014 alongside the Steam Machines.

Steam also says the Steam Controller was "designed from the ground up to be hackable. Just as the Steam Community and Workshop contributors currently deliver tremendous value via additions to software products on Steam, we believe that they will meaningfully contribute to the design of the Steam Controller. We plan to make tools available that will enable users to participate in all aspects of the experience, from industrial design to electrical engineering. We can’t wait to see what you come up with."

The Steam Controller will work with PCs too and just not Steam Machines. Given the Linux-based SteamOS, Linux support for this gamepad will surely come, but no details have emerged yet. It's most likely to be implemented via an open-source HID Linux driver.

More details on the controller from Valve have been shared on this SteamPowered.com page.

Next week Valve also says they will be releasing details concerning their SteamOS prototype.
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Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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