Here’s the Steam Controller

Yes, after the recent announcements about Steam OS and Steam Machines, Valve is back with the Steam Controller. Citing from the official site this is a new kind of controller:

“We set out with a singular goal: bring the Steam experience, in its entirety, into the living-room. We knew how to build the user interface, we knew how to build a machine, and even an operating system. But that still left input — our biggest missing link. We realized early on that our goals required a new kind of input technology — one that could bridge the gap from the desk to the living room without compromises. So we spent a year experimenting with new approaches to input and we now believe we’ve arrived at something worth sharing and testing with you.”

The Steam Controller is designed to work with all the games on Steam: past, present, and future. Even the older titles in the catalog and the ones which were not built with controller support.

The 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, they believe that they will meaningfully contribute to the design of the Steam Controller. Valve is planning to make tools available that will enable users to participate in all aspects of the experience, from industrial design to electrical engineering.

We’re not really sure about the total lack of analog sticks, but you’ll never know. We’ll see, stay tuned! In the meanwhile, here’s the suggested example configuration for Portal 2.