Poor Steam Controller. Hanging on lengthy after Valve’s efforts to convey PCs into the lounge fizzed out, the last batch of the gamepads finally sold out last November, bringing an finish to the period of Steam Machines. And that was that, till curious eyes noticed a patent submitting for a brand new Steam Controller – one which’s making an attempt to one-up the Xbox One Elite Controller on customisability.
As with so many issues Valve, the patent filing was noticed by Valve News Network’s Tyler McVicker (through PCGamesN), describing a gamepad “receiver” that features housings for a number of sorts of enter.
A brand new patent has been printed from Valve of a Steam Controller with swap-able parts. pic.twitter.com/8X5IiKIHvm
— Tyler McVicker (@ValveNewsNetwor) April 11, 2020
Like Microsoft’s “Elite” Xbox One controller, the patent describes a controller whose components could be swapped out and in at will. But slightly than simply choosing a unique sort of stick or D-Pad based mostly on private desire, the brand new Steam pad desires to allow you to plug in solely completely different types of enter.
The most specific instance given all through the submitting explains how an analogue stick might simply be swapped out for a directional-pad, relying on what feels greatest on a game-by-game foundation. Software throughout the pad would detect which enter is presently plugged in. It looks like this may apply to inputs throughout the controller – together with the Steam Controller’s notorious owl-eye trackpads.
It would possibly even imply scope for branching into extra accessible enter, a la the Xbox Adaptive Controller – at this early stage, although, it’s not explicitly talked about. At this early stage, it’s value noting that all the pieces is extremely topic to alter – even the diagrams are probably simply utilizing outlines from the final technology of Steam pad.
When Valve debuted the Steam Controller, it was making an attempt to shake-up a static paradigm in gamepad design. Those large trackpads have been aimed toward making genres that have been lengthy the area of keyboard and mouse accessible on the couch – and to a level, certain, they labored. You might, technically, play Sid Meier’s Civilisation on the telly. But they got here on the expense of genres that labored fantastically with extra conventional layouts, on a chunk of {hardware} that felt startlingly low-cost.
Reviewing the Steam Controller three months on, Alec Meer (RPS in peace) discovered it a irritating factor – a pad that’s “conceptually the solution to an age-old problem, and in many respects gets much closer than innumerable gonzo projects to replace keyboard and mouse have over the last 30 years, but it’s just not good enough”.
The Steam Controller’s one huge promote was in bringing infinite management customisation to each game on Steam. If a brand new gamepad might convey that high quality to the {hardware} itself, Valve would possibly lastly have cracked this controller lark.
