Valve’s new Steam Controller will cost $99 and will be available to order on Monday, May 4th. After more than two weeks with the gamepad in hand, the author says it has already changed how they play at home, enough to make the Steam Deck handheld lose its spot as the go-to couch gaming setup.
Instead of picking up the Deck and playing handheld, the author now docks it to the TV more often and reaches for the Controller. The reason is simple: nearly every input can be set to do whatever the player wants, and layouts made for the Steam Deck move over to the Controller in the same spots, with the same setup working if the gamepad is taken to a friend’s house and used on another machine.
That kind of flexibility is the point of Valve’s first-party pad, and it is the part that gives the Steam Controller its edge. The author said they had been looking for a controller with the same customization and sheer function as the Steam Deck while playing on a TV, and said Valve delivered. The Controller also works with a Steam Deck through a USB-C puck that creates a low-latency 2.4GHz connection and magnetically attaches to the back for charging.
Build quality impressed, too. The Controller feels comfortable to hold, nothing rattles when it is shaken, the D-pad feels more solid, and the new Steam and Quick Access buttons are clicky. The rumble is said to be crisper than on the 8BitDo Ultimate 2 Wireless, though Sony’s haptics on the DualSense are still better. Not everything landed perfectly: the author said the position of the trackpads was one thing they did not like as much.
Even with that quibble, the verdict is clear. The author said they are glad the experience is seamless, because the Controller is nice. For Valve, that matters because this is not just a new accessory but a way to pull Steam Deck-style control into more living rooms, with the same customization carried from handheld to TV and back again.