Valve Reveals Steam Controller for Software, Will Work in all Games in Store

Valve has been very busy recently, as the company has announced that the SteamOS operating system for future home consoles and the Steam Machines program to prototype the very first home consoles Valve is working on. Now, Valve has announced on their official website that they are developing the Steam Controller, which will work both for current and future Steam titles on PC and Steam Machines. This announcement falls in line with the push Valve has taken to take Steam and make it more living room friendly:

"We set out with a singular goal: bring the Steam experience, in its entirety, into the living-room. We knew how to build the user interface, we knew how to build a machine, and even an operating system. But that still left input - our biggest missing link. We realized early on that our goals required a new kind of input technology - one that could bridge the gap from the desk to the living room without compromises. So we spent a year experimenting with new approaches to input and we now believe we've arrived at something worth sharing and testing with you."

The Steam Controller is unlike any other controller, even the next gen controllers for the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. Instead of joysticks the controller will have two circular haptic trackpads where the traditional d-pad and face buttons are set. Where start and select are usually located, there is a touch screen, with four buttons labeled Y,B,X, and A set around the four corners of the touchscreen. The controller will have two shoulder buttons as well.

Valve's new toy will work on every single Steam title available, even those made in the past, through some clever engineering. As Valve explains:

"The Steam Controller is designed to work with all the games on Steam: past, present, and future. Even the older titles in the catalog and the ones which were not built with controller support. (We've fooled those older games into thinking they're being played with a keyboard and mouse)..."

It remains to be seen how well the Steam Controller works both for past and future games, as well as how the new device will operate in conjunction with Steam Machines next year. One thing that is for sure is that Valve is supremely confident in their product:

"The Steam controller offers a new and, we believe, vastly superior control scheme, all while enabling you to play from the comfort of your sofa. Built with high-precision input technologies and focused on low-latency performance, the Steam controller is just what the living-room ordered."