The Steam Controller: What The Developers Think

Valve’s Steam controller is wowing the developers after its reveal last week, and now some developers are weighing in on the unusual new controller. As previously reported by The Inquisitr, our predictions were that the Steam controller’s hackable functionality gives it the edge over the PS4 and Xbox One.

According to game developers who actually got their hands on a preliminary model, we were right. It requires a little getting used to, but in the end it could actually be better than the others. Anyway, the developers come from different companies, each with a focus on different kinds of games, though they all seemed to judge it by its usefulness with first-person shooters.

John Clark from Sega said that the controller was easy to get used to, as it functions with realistic feedback, making it ideal for first-person shooters. He also said he’d like to see how the controller functions with real-time strategy games, the types that use the keyboard and mouse the most because a console controller up to this point has its limits.

Jamie Cheng of Klei Entertainment says that according to coworker Jeff Agala, the Steam controller is extremely intuitive and the trackpad actually feels like it replaces buttons rather well.

Another developer’s opinion on the Steam controller was incredibly positive. Ichiro Lambe of Dejobaan Games said that in minutes, a first-person shooter was more accessible using the trackpad as opposed to the gamepad most console controllers offer.

Seeing as the controller was a prototype, with four buttons where the touch screen should be, the general consensus is that even though the Steam controller isn’t a finished product yet, the one the developers tried has a lot of potential. Of course one of the biggest disadvantages was the lack of boundaries given with the trackpad, but that could just take getting used to. Games we usually play on the PC will feel right at home on a console maybe half the size of the PS4 and Xbox One.

Developers think that Valve’s Steam controller is a hit, and most PC titles will likely find themselves migrating to a living room near you.