Slashdot Mirror
Valve Announces Steam Controller
Today Valve unveiled their third and final announcement about living room gaming: a Steam controller. The company made the determination that existing gamepads simply weren't good enough for bringing PC games to the living room, so they made their own. Instead of having directional pads or thumb sticks, the Steam controller has two circular trackpads. The trackpads are also clickable, and Valve claims they provide much higher fidelity than any previous controller trackpad. Valve also eschewed the traditional 'rumble' feedback mechanism: "The Steam Controller is built around a new generation of super-precise haptic feedback, employing dual linear resonant actuators. These small, strong, weighted electro-magnets are attached to each of the dual trackpads. They are capable of delivering a wide range of force and vibration, allowing precise control over frequency, amplitude, and direction of movement." The center of the controller holds a clickable touchscreen. "When programmed by game developers using our API, the touch screen can work as a scrolling menu, a radial dial, provide secondary info like a map or use other custom input modes we haven't thought of yet." The design also breaks up the common diamond-shaped button layout, instead putting the A B X Y buttons at the corners of the touchscreen. The controller is designed to be hackable, and Valve will "make tools available that will enable users to participate in all aspects of the experience, from industrial design to electrical engineering." The controller is being beta tested concurrently with the Steam Machines they announced on Wednesday, so you can expect them to be on sale in 2014.
I'm not really sure how, but it's been confirmed with this announcement. You have to read it carefully. Specifically, picking certain letters out.
(starts crying)
I have no idea what I'm talking about but here is my commentary.
"Slashvertisement" is a wonderful word.
It's so much shorter than "I am an aggressively dishonest shitheel who refuses to make the simple distinction between advertising and reporting the the fact of a product announcement, and furthermore I am desperate to affect a demeanor of world-weary cynicism that I can never actually attain but have been conditioned to think is cool by the very people I want to think I'm rebelling against".
This actually looks really unusable
Actually, it looks like speakers.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Stop being factual. I was trying to make a point.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
wtf is a "phone book" ?
And what about people like me who don't own a TV and don't buy computer games? They need to scratch this whole design and come up with something that isn't a game console, there no sense in anyone making products that neither of us has a use for. Maybe make a domestic robot?
Pretty sure you're what they might call a corner case. But thanks for coming into this thread and letting everyone know that you're not in the target market and aren't interested in the product anyway. I'll definitely sleep better tonight knowing that Gavagai80 doesn't own a TV and doesn't buy computer games, and thus is disinterested in a product that a company that primarily produces video games and a video game/software distribution platform develops to help people buy and play computer games on screens that aren't directly attached to their main computers.
Really. It's like the world had been in black & white and is now in color. It's like I'm hearing birds chirp for the very first time all over again now that you've brought this to my attention. Thank you, Gavagai80, you've single-handedly made 2013 the best year of my life.
Leela: Didn't you have ads in the 21st century?"
Fry: Well sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio, and in magazines, and movies, and at ball games... and on buses and milk cartons and t-shirts, and bananas and written on the sky. But not in dreams, no siree.
and has moved on to AAAAAARRRGHHS! That's the only way I can explain this week's perpetual 3-trollage.
"I’m a happy Steam customer happily using my happy mouse and keyboard. I don’t want a controller?" "You can’t make a sentence into a question by just putting a question-mark at the end. But we’re happy you’re happy [...]" Oh Valve. I love companies who can still afford to have a sense of humour about things.
I'm sure Steam didn't think about how to make this work with Steam games while developing this. It looks like it's back to the drawing board for them.