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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 don't mind the trackpads, they could be alright. Maybe. But the fact that they expect you to alternately press buttons with either hand makes me feel like it could be hard to simultaneously move and act in a game.(This must be how lefties feel all the time)
As with regular ads, it's only annoying when it's things I don't want immediately as soon as I hear about them. Ads for a new car or a coke? Shove those up your ass. Ads for a controller I wanted as soon as I saw the headline? Not annoying to me.
Anyway, isn't the implication with "slashvertizing" that someone has posted a story to their own product? Pretty sure this was posted out of genuine interest, not financial interest.
They already said you can still use KB+M. I mean, the hardware's going to be running GNU/Linux, after all.
I have no idea what I'm talking about but here is my commentary.
They're not great for sitting on a couch and playing games. I've tried both and it's a lot more comfortable to be holding a controller rather than a long keyboard that needs to be placed on something.
You can use those too likely. There are plenty of USB controllers in different configurations that can plug into a PC and work with Steam Big Picture at the moment.
The idea is to try and create an experience that's close to the precision of a keyboard and mouse. No console controller offers this.
I'm actually really happy about this. This is the kind of innovation controllers have been needing for a very long time. I can pretty much guarantee that PS5 and, uh, Xbox Two? will employ controllers with this kind of tech.
The Internet King? I wonder if he could provide faster nudity.
I just hope it doesn't flop.
Perception is the thin dividing line between reality and fiction.
No, I refuse to mod up. It's not trolling, but it lacks a meaningful insight. Steam approaches the DRM question from a different direction by detaching game ownership from physical devices entirely.
When you buy a disk, and have an install limit, or an offline game, with an always online requirement, it turns the thing you think you have into something less valuable, and uses a legal fiction to justify it. Steam gives you a person license that you can use as part of an account independent of the machine on which its installed, with some flexibility regarding internet access and physical media. It's a license that actually acts like a license, you can use it freely, yourself. It treats the underlying legal fiction as actually representative of usage, rather than an excuse to limit you.
It has tons of buttons that don't require moving the hands at all.
I think you're completely wrong.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
Stop being factual. I was trying to make a point.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
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?
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Don't be ridiculous. Slashdot has covered new and interesting product developments since long before you created a SlashID. This falls well into the "News for Nerds" category. I will probably never buy this as I don't even game, yet I read it anyway. Why? Because it is interesting new technology. Period.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
wtf is a "phone book" ?
We don't like the DRM, we just realize that DRM is not a black and white issue that trumps all else in the equation. We also realize that without any DRM whatsoever, PC gaming would be limited to what you see on GOG. GOG is good an all, old games are fun, indie games are good and sometimes better than anything else, and the small handful of big titles that are released DRM free are really to be applauded... but often I want big new games that some company has invested a lot of money in. A lot of them aren't entirely comfortable with it being completely DRM free. If you can't understand their perspective, you've clearly never made a game (neither have I) and you're closed minded.
The big problem with Steam is the restriction on simultaneously using two games in one library. My wife likes to play too, and those games, under California law, are as much hers as they are mine, no matter what the Terms-of-Use say.
So I need to make a new account for every game I buy, and it's a major pain in the ass to manage.
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.
"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.
Half Life 3 has missed the boat. It is now in Duke Nukem territory where no one will care when it is released.
Yeah, obviously they do. It looks like they've taken a lot of care in getting rid of problems that, up till now, have plagued trackpads.
Why don't you at least give it a try before bellowing out your uninformed opinion about how much you dislike it?