When looking at this, it really does look like a pair of speakers with a few buttons.
Apparently their aim is to make a controller with a sizable gamut of technologies and concepts that have never been tried before, and I can say that this will either be one of the biggest innovations ever seen in game controllers or one of the biggest flops.
For example, what looks like ‘speakers’ are actually trackpads that your thumbs rest on and you can click, the button in the middle with the steam logo can be clicked as well. Supposedly, there’s also 17 other buttons, but the photo doesn’t really give any idea as to where they are at.
The one other thing I’ve found though is the idea that it will be able to ‘fool’ games on the steam storefront into thinking they’re getting mouse and keyboard input when in reality the input is from the controller, something which would mean possible applications for the BGE as well if it can work with any game regardless of where you get it from.
There would be applications for this device not just in gaming, but in other fields as well. Something the developers would have considered when designing this out of the box controller.
I think it could work, it looks funny but that’s because I’m used to analog sticks, if it doesn’t fail miserably it could very well be the new standard of controllers.
There’s been an understandable amount of skepticism about the steam controller, I for one am quite intrigued by the concept thus far.
I wonder if the keyboard/mouse emulation is built into games running through steam, or if you would be able to use it for any game/program. It might be a novel (though probably not accurate enough) tool for modelling, or a neat tool for controlling rigs and stuff for animating.
From what i’ve read so far, the “speakers” actually can be used as speakers. They have some advanced vibration mechanism that can make it vibrate in different directions and stuff, and got such a fine control that they can be made to vibrate like a speaker cones (dunno about the quality of the sound though; i would guess its way better than floppy drives, but not as good as good quality speakers).
I for one am happy that they went a new way with the controller, trying innovation while maintaining the good sites.
Like Henry Ford said: “If I had asked my customers what they wanted they would have said a faster horse.”
So yeh. Steam’s controller is something new and until I’ve used one with my own hands:
Skeptical interest over diffuse rejection.