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Beating mouse + KB is hard and people already have good enough Xbox/ps controllers to justify buying another
This is the correct answer. I use a controller on console because I have to. There are very few game genres (imho) where a controller is superior to a mouse.
To add onto your point, a lot of games where mouse+keyboard isn't the best set of inputs, neither is a controller. Things like flight games or racing games.
Exactly, honestly fighting games are the only genre I can think of where a controller is better than keyboard/mouse.. maybe platformers?
Edit: again this is my personal opinion. I knew a guy back when lan parties were still a thing that would play shooters with a trackball and he would annihilate everyone. We all got our preferences :)
Souls like games are pretty much always far superior on controller imo over m+kb. M+kb just feels janky for me in souls likes
Any game that benefits from more then 8 directional movement is better on controller typically. Which is pretty much just third person action games with reflex based movement mechanics. So souls likes typically.
Yea I can see that -I suck so bad at souls games I tend not to play them much anymore
It's just a personal experience thing for some games. I use controller (8bitdo Pro PS style) for FFXIV, Monster Hunter games, and a few smaller games that use third person overhead (Isometric?) as well as general turn based RPGs, but almost never for anything that feels similar to a shooter. Ark, Warframe, BG3, and a bunch of other survival/builder games, X4 etc are all keyboard and mouse.
There are some that may seem like they're in the wrong category, like the Horizon games are controller for me despite having a lot of aiming mechanics, but again it's all personal feeling of comfort. I don't argue for either one to other people; just use what feels good to you.
I have a third-party Xbox controller that's my main gamepad, and I bought a PS3 controller a while back for emulating PlayStation games (there was one game I played that I literally needed the controller for a specific mechanic/functionality).
My Xbox controller actually has a couple extra buttons on the back/bottom that you can program to be other buttons; I set them to be alternate bumpers so I don't have to hold the controller in that weird claw way.
Everyone is busy maximizing profits instead of fucking innovating meanwhile valve is over here hunkered down like a mad scientist
Valve just realised that killing the golden goose, for a quick buck, is a bad plan.
A smooth, efficient customer experience keeps us around.
A low friction, but not aggressively in your face sales setup makes getting us to pay them very easy.
Streamlining the developer toolchain and sales path means more games to sell to us.
It's not a hard formula, but apparently MBAs can't keep with it long enough to let it snowball. They keep trying to cash out early, and cook the goose.
Not being a public company and having executive compensation be dictated by the results of a handful of quarters probably helps
Before the Steam Deck. I had said if Valve splits the back buttons and adds Type C Steam Controller 2 is good enough for me. Then I held a Steam Deck. Then I used a Steam Deck. and I knew then THATS what I needed as a controller. 4 years later here we are. I have money already in my Steam Account and anyone who I talk to has to hear me ask if its Monday yet.
Speaking of which.... Is it Monday yet?
Yes it is, go, go, go!
Still bummed about the 100 dollar price tag
I think I'll try it if there's a sale, but that's a hefty price for a controller. I'm fine with just running m&k for now
I guess I'm old enough to remember that there were a plethora of joysticks and game pads during the 80's and 90's that were designed for PC. So many options for PC back in the day.
That all changed and dried up after Doom came on the scene and M+K and the precision that it gave became the norm and there was no real need for PC gamepads and the market for that dried up plus with console controllers moving to work with PC's there was really no need for something PC specific since for most games, M+K is still better suited or at least more than serviceable so the PC controller market is niche still at best.
I played Descent II with both a Microsoft Sidewinder, and a Spaceorb 360.
Holy crap! I just saw that Linus Torvalds wrote in 1999, and is still maintaining, a Linux SpaceOrb 360 driver.
Holy crap 2.0! Here's a guy selling a complete hardware and software solution to get a SpaceOrb 360 working on a modern computer: https://www.etsy.com/listing/4380741525/vectorbridge-usb-adapter-spaceorb-360?sts=1
Last time I looked, I couldn't get Windows drivers for it, so I just gave up. Not on Windows anymore.
"I play video games with the same input as Microsoft Excel."
Factorio players: “I play video games with the same input, output, and gameplay as Microsoft Excel.”
I thought that was EVE Online.
I think what people will look back on and say was so successful about this design as it relates to the steam deck joysticks and trackpads is that it cemented a control pattern that I think will become a standard for high quality pc gamepads/handhelds.
The market is ripe for someone to make something very similar but flip the joysticks and touchpads for people that prefer that layout, for one....
I think the market is kind of stagnant, the Steam Controller should help shake that up a bit hopefully. I'm looking forward to getting 2 of them myself.
Even with a "pc first" controller there will still be a significant amount of pc users who just flat out refuse. Their loss though because this looks interesting.
I mean why would most people want it over a "normal" controller you can get for half the price and works with more than just steam games?
I mean you'll be able to play anything on your pc with it, doesn't have to be from Steam.
The price thing tho, yeah it's pricy. I guess it comes down to how much you want touchpads.
Like the OG steam controller you have to use steam to launch for it to work like a normal controller.
According to the GN video the joysticks don't work as a normal xinput device unless you have steam open the game to translate it. You're locked into using steam with the controller. This is my biggest qualm with the OG steam controller. (well besides me hating the touch pad)
Honestly... To me, any controller that can connect to my PC is a PC controller.
Like yeah, I get the Steam controller; now people can play games that would usually require mouse input. But in my case I'd just... Use the mouse...
I have a controller from 8bitdo (the one that looks like a SNES married to a DS4) and I use that one for games that work best on controller.
Still love my original Steam Controller. At least 10 years old now I think. Still works great.
I remember a time there was plenty.
Well...
Microcomputers had joysticks before they had Microsoft. On the PC platform with the 15 pin game port, a 4 axis (XYZ + throttle) and 8 button plus hat switch form factor arose by the late 90's such as the Microsoft Sidewinder and Logitech Wingman series. Later models made the transition to USB, there were a couple attempts at force feedback about the time the game industry shifted.
In the early 2000s, flight sims like the Janes series, Microsoft Flight Simulator etc. and other vehicle sim games like Descent and Mechwarrior faded away in favor of first person shooters like Half Life 2 and MMORPGs like World of Warcraft which are best controlled by mouse and keybaord. Interestingly enough, PC games designed for joysticks like Mechwarrior and Crimson Skies moved to consoles to be played with controllers; both saw their final entries on Xbox 360.
Microsoft discontinued the Sidewinder series in 2003. In late 2005 they released a Windows driver for the Xbox 360 controller along with Xinput, making the Xbox 360 controller the de facto standard for a PC game pad. This arrangement has remained more or less intact to the present day, with Microsoft adding support for the Xbox One controller to Windows 10 in 2015, though 360 controller support remains.
tl;dr: The standard issue Xbox controller has been the first party supported gamepad on PC for 20 years.
Logitech produces the cheap Player Two ones you use to pilot billionaire crushing submarines. Valve tried with their original Steam Controller, which was kinda weird and had niche appeal. More recently the likes of Gravis have tried? But the average unwashed mass is going to walk into Best Buy and pick up an Xbox controller, or use the one that he already owns for his Xbox.
I'm not sure. I use a controller for any game where it makes sense. It's more ergonomic for me--my fingers get angry at me if I use keyboard and mouse to, say, run around a map for too long. Gamepad doesn't hurt the same way.
I'm also team "invert the y-axis because my character is a helicopter".
If I could have the valve touchpads on a controller made by 8bitdo or gamesir that'd be great. I'll probably buy it, but I haven't held a Valve device which had buttons or ergonomics that felt as good as the ones from those other two companies.