Valve wraps up week of reveals with Steam Controller unveiling

Valve’s hardware announcements last week concluded with the unveiling of a new controller optimized for Steam and Steam Machines devices.

The wireless peripheral will work with all of Steam’s catalog released from here forward, and will include legacy support for past releases that lack gamepad support.

Going against the traditional” grain, Valve’s controller will use two trackpads instead of the dual-analog style. It will rely on haptic feedback that allows for precise control over frequency, amplitude, and direction of movement” to combat the lack of the raised sticks that come standard with other consoles.

The controller will also feature a touch-enabled surface, with a high-resolution screen that can be utilized as a button as well.

"The screen allows an infinite number of discrete actions to be made available to the player, without requiring an infinite number of physical buttons." Valve’s official news post read.

The pool of 300 selected for Valve’s Steam Machines hardware beta program will receive one of these new controllers as well, though it won’t have all of the aforementioned launch features.

The beta version of the Steam controller will lack the touchscreen, replaced instead with four buttons, and it also requires a USB cable.