this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2026
178 points (90.5% liked)

Steam Hardware

21936 readers
326 users here now

A place to discuss and support all Steam Hardware, including Steam Deck, Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and SteamOS in general.

As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title

The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Deck] - Steam Deck related.
[Machine] - Steam Machine related.
[Frame] - Steam Frame related.
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.

If your post is only relevant to one hardware device (Deck/Machine/Frame/etc) please specify which one as part of the title or by using a device flair.

These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.

Rules:

Link to our Matrix Space

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
Moxvallix@sopuli.xyz
Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz
178
"Valve’s new Steam Controller has a major problem for PC games not on Steam" (tech.sportskeeda.com)
submitted 2 days ago by BentiGorlich@gehirneimer.de to c/steamdeck@sopuli.xyz
122 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

The issue comes down to how the device interacts with your computer. Just like the original version, the new Steam Controller has no native Windows drivers. This means the hardware relies entirely on the Steam app to function properly. If you do not have the game running via Valve's storefront app, your shiny new gamepad turns into a useless piece of plastic.

Gamers Nexus also reported this and there are a lot of other news outlets also covering this. It is kinda the same as with the steam deck where I noticed that the inputs just don't work until steam is launched. I really don't like that I have to have Steam running for this controller to work. I don't know if it is a dealbreaker for me, yet, but it really put a damper on my enthusiasm about it

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] HoloPengin@lemmy.world 22 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

The controller requires some sort of drivers to get out of lizard mode and work as a general controller (with remapping and everything). This has been known as it acts identically to Steam Deck and the OG Steam Controller.

If you want to use the controller without Steam being used (which, it's worth noting, you can add non-steam games to Steam to use the controller, or adjust the default desktop profile to be a normal controller), then you should be able to use SISR (formerly GloSC and GloSI): https://github.com/Alia5/SISR

Or, on Linux, use sc-controller: https://github.com/C0rn3j/sc-controller

[–] Mr_Wobble@thelemmy.club 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Lizard mode?

[–] HoloPengin@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

The default mouse+keyboard layout the controller starts in before Steam takes over. I think they call it that as a play on the phrase "lizard brain"

[–] toothbrush@lemmy.blahaj.zone 112 points 2 days ago (23 children)

This should not be a problem on linux. The old controller has a basic linux driver included in the upstream kernel, and there is a userspace driver too called sc-controller which I have used.

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 26 points 2 days ago

It's supposed to have Linux drivers. Fuck windows. No problem here.

[–] BentiGorlich@gehirneimer.de 18 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Uh interesting 🤔 I will probably just wait and see if that is actually the case and working. Right now I have an xbox one controller with the wireless dongle for which I need to compile a kernel module to work and I'd like to get rid of that 😅

[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 25 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

You should generally always wait and see with basically all tech products. There is never really a reason to buy freshly released products except for FOMO stupidity.

load more comments (21 replies)
[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 28 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Wait, this is a 'problem'?

People didn't know this?

... can people not read?

Its... stated repeatedly, pretty plainly, that it works ... with Steam.

???

[–] Nindelofocho@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (5 children)

Its a problem that it works that way not that it wasent advertised. Sure it works with steam but im betting people expected it to work like a basic controller outside of steam as well like xinput. Even the Xbox controller does this. Yes theres an app you can get to use the extra functions but my elite controller works like a normal controller without that app especially because I mainly use linux now.

There are a lot of people who link controllers to their phone either to game on their phone or stream games to their phone and I do not think the controller would work in that case.

Edit for some clarification: Steam is required for the controller to work and it only works for games added to Steam according to the article this means that:

  • You cant run games and use the controller outside of Steam
  • You cant stream games from your own PC outside of SteamLink or use the controller as a controller for a phone or even any projects you might have.

This only accounts for a small amount of users sure but why should they be getting shafted when they dont have to be?

Where is really bad though is unless the driver is initialized on the log in screen what happens to your controller when you dont have internet? What happens when servers go offline or Valve decides to block your VPN or whatnot? Itll be a brick. I do not want to give any more credit to them I promise you but my Xbox and DualShock controllers work just fine in this situation. (I still do want a Steam controller but I do not want to reward this sort of behavior)

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

Ok, I didn't downvote you, but...

Its a Steam Controller.

For Steam.

... If you just made up some expectation, contrary to everything that Valve has said about this thing, and marketed it as...

To a certain extent, that is magical thinking, that is abandoning any concept of checking your hopes or expectations against... reality.

If you... want to run... a game... with this controller...

You install Steam, and the game.

Steam is the drivers, for the controller.

If you own the game in a way that you can't add it to Steam... sorry about your DRM, I guess?

The Steam Controller has always been described by Valve as an evolution of the Steam Deck tech, both hardwsre and software... it pretty much literally is a Steam Deck, without the screen and PC, in a different shape.

EDIT:

IRT to your edit:

Point 1: Correct. The Steam Controller... works through Steam.

Point 2: ... I don't think the first half of this is correct. I'm not 100% sure, but I think you can do this via Moonlight/Sunshine. I mean... I know you can in general stream Steam games from a PC using Moonlight/Sunshine, I'm not 100% sure this will work with a Steam Controller... but it works on a Steam Deck, so... probably will work.

As to the second half of this... yeah, the Steam Controller probably won't generally work as a controller for a game on a phone. Though FeX may actually somewhat/eventually aid with getting that to being possible.

Any projects? Make your project support Steam Input. I can't speak for other engines too well, but Godot has GodotSteam, supports Steam Controllers, the SteamInput system.

As to your internet related concerns: Steam has an offline mode. Unless you are running a game via Steam that has its own/extra DRM that requires a constant internet connection, you'll be fine.

SteamInput works without internet. If it didnt't, a SteamDeck's controls would not work at all without internet access. ... It does.

EDIT 2:

Just for super duper clarity here:

Making a Steam account costs nothing.

Maintaining a Steam account costs nothing.

Any ... .exe or .sh or whatever... can be added to Steam, to be launched and played via Steam.

The... only kind of situation where this wouldn't work is essentially via a game that is installed/managed by some other platform that basically encrypts the exe in a way that only that platform can decrypt.

A GOG game, or something from Itch.io, with no DRM?

Plop it in Steam, it'll work.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] Laavu@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I would absolutely not want it to work as a controller outside Steam. In initial mode, aka lizard mode, it works as a keyboard and mouse because they want it to be able to boot your OS. That way you can even use it to manage your UEFI settings. Even in bluetooth mode, the og. SC works initially as a mouse. It's designed for HTPCs after all.

[–] gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 day ago

You don't want a controller to work as a controller?

Why? It's what it's for.

[–] Nindelofocho@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

If it works as a mouse and keyboard without Steam open then that would be fine but from what im reading so far it doesn’t do anything until steam is launched

[–] Earthman_Jim@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's a problem when people don't understand what they're spending their money on. Steam can make their device do whatever the fuck they want, and "consumers" are fully within their rights to not buy it...

[–] Nindelofocho@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (10 children)

And we are able to freely criticize them about it. If any other company did the same people would be irate.

[–] doublah@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Other companies do the exact same though, Nintendo controllers don't support non-Nintendo devices (although they've been reverse-engineered for Steam and Linux).

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago

... but the Steam Controller works with any hardware that can run Steam.

... which is... any PC, thats less than roughly 15-20 years old.

So this is absolutely not the exact same thing as what Nintendo does.

Steam is hardware agnostic. Nintendo is not.

You could run a Steam Controller on a Nintendo Switch, provided you got rid of Nintendo's operating system, like so:

https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/handheld-gaming/steam-shown-running-on-nintendo-switch-thanks-to-latest-proton-beta-fex-2604-translates-x86-to-arm-friendly-instructions-on-linux

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (9 replies)
[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Every comment thread longer than ten replies will include a variation of, "This isn't new."

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] mavu@discuss.tchncs.de 26 points 2 days ago

Just pretend that that installing Steam is installing the driver software and you're fine.

What's that? Hmm? Oh, you say you don't need an 3rd party account to install driver software?

Have you touched a windows PC in the last 5 years?

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 71 points 2 days ago (3 children)

It is kinda the same as with the steam deck where I noticed that the inputs just don't work until steam is launched.

That's just the moment when Steam is launching and in the process of taking over the controls. You can try it by shutting down Steam. The controller will continue working like the default desktop profile.

By default it presents mouse and keyboard functionality. And when you hold down the start button it switches to the pure gamepad mode. I play plenty of none-Steam-games that way. All with the native Linux FOSS driver. Without Steam or any other additional userspace software.

[–] BentiGorlich@gehirneimer.de 22 points 2 days ago

Oh interesting 🤔 So yeah maybe this isn't actually a problem for me (using Fedora and the deck)

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] PonyOfWar@pawb.social 53 points 2 days ago (3 children)

It should really come with an XInput mode. That's pretty much a basic feature for any PC controller.

[–] fartsparkles@lemmy.world 43 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

I’m surprised people think this is odd since the original Steam Controller was the same - it’s a Steam Input device, not XInput.

If you consider what it was designed for, it makes sense. This isn’t another generic controller but a controller designed for a Linux/PC-based video games console (Steam Machine).

If you boot into a desktop UI without Steam running, desktop UIs don’t support xinput devices to navigate around them.

The Steam Controller thus defaults to presenting itself as a keyboard and mouse so that the UI can be navigated without Steam running.

If it was xinput, you’d be reaching for a keyboard and mouse to plug in just to click Steam and then immediately no longer need them.

That’s why it’s not an xinput device.

[–] FishFace@piefed.social 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It makes sense for Valve trying to create a walled-garden ecosystem of the kind we all rightfully shit on Nintendo for creating. It does not make sense for the consumer.

If it needs to present a KB+M device for OS navigation, it can fucking well do so at the same time as presenting a game controller device and having a way, using its many inputs, to switch between the two. Then it would work on everything that works on Windows and Proton. Then it would work on XBox, and any console that works with standard USB HID devices.

[–] fartsparkles@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

It’ll have that on Linux like last time. You just need to set the uinput driver for the device. They had a generic gamepad one in the kernel for the OG. But not loaded by default as it’ll look like a kb&m out of the box unless you set a user-level driver config for the HIDs.

Valve were very supportive of Linux if people didn’t want to use Steam/Steam Input but other OS didn’t get their efforts beyond the Steam client.

[–] PonyOfWar@pawb.social 12 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

The fact that this isn't a new thing doesn't mean that it's a good thing. Especially since nowadays there are good third-party controllers with remappable buttons that can also switch to a KB/M functionality at the push of a button. Also, I paid 5,50€ for my brand new original Steam Controller, so Valve kinda has to convince me to spend about 18 times that. I don't know if this is a dealbreaker for me, but I'd definitely consider it "not great".

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 10 points 2 days ago (4 children)

It's at least available with the generic Linux driver. When Steam isn't running you can switch between mouse/keyboard and gamepad mode by holding down the start button.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] absquatulate@lemmy.world 24 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (11 children)

This is a dealbreaker for me. I was tempted by it despite the price, but fuck this. I refuse to run everything through steam

I wonder what's stopping them from releasing dedicated win drivers if the native ones are inadequate.

load more comments (11 replies)
[–] Dunstabzugshaubitze@feddit.org 23 points 2 days ago

there were community build userland drivers for the original steam controller i hope for something similar for the new one.

but valve support for such things would be great.

[–] fox2263@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Why would you buy a steam controller and not use it with steam?

[–] gerryflap@feddit.nl 2 points 1 day ago

For the same reason I use PS3 and PS4 controllers to play PC games. I don't even own a PS4. A controller should preferably be usable as a generic gamepad. Not that the PlayStation controllers necessarily are, on windows I always needed shady programs for that, but I'd expect better from Steam

[–] Nindelofocho@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Why would you drink rum out of a whiskey glass?

[–] alsimoneau@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 days ago

The whisky glass brings out more notes in the nose of the rum.

[–] x00z@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Maybe you received it as a gift or found it for cheap secondhand?

[–] lepinkainen@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

So gifts and second hand items should magically work in a way they weren’t intended to?

[–] Quibblekrust@thelemmy.club 8 points 2 days ago

I plan on using this specifically with my docked Steam Deck, so I don't mind. However, it's a good point to make.

I don't think it's a big deal, though. The entire reason to buy this thing is for the integration with Steam Input and all the cool things you can do with the track pads, Grip Sense and everything else. Steam Input absolutely blows away any third-party input app I've ever used in the past from Logitech, Corsair, or whoever. I suppose to be fair, they should release a stand-alone Steam Input program.

If Apple did this, and required... I dunno... fuckin' iTunes to run their Apple controller, I'd mock them and anyone who buys it, but I guess Valve gets a pass because I'm a fanboy.

I own one Epic game (Fenix Rising), and a few Humble games, and maybe a couple GoG, but 99.9% of the time I'm playing a Steam game anyway. I imagine the controller works fine for running a non-steam game that you've registered in your Steam Library.

[–] PhAzE@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago

For me, the fact that your thumbs can touch when pressing the sticks to the middle is unfortunately enough for me to pass on this. Plus I hear the ergonomics of it doesn’t feel nice, pulling your elbows in to your body so you can hold it properly.

[–] benny@reddthat.com 6 points 2 days ago

This is only off putting if there weren't 3rd party apps and drivers, which there probably will be. Librepods made airpod premium features work on Android, no reason why it can't be done here.

load more comments
view more: next ›