It’s been a long time since we’ve seen any valve branding on a controller that doesn’t have a screen attached to it. Then, out of nowhere, Valve is helping a Japanese gaming hardware company, Hori, put a Steam button on a new controller. . At the same time, why is it possibly the most influential company in PC gaming? promoting The rise of the controller, perhaps upsetting the absolute supremacy of mouse and keyboard? Is this a true paradigm shift in PC gaming?
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Come on, no, of course not. It simply represents the change in PC gaming portability. It’s obvious what type of controllers Valve decides to promote. Valve has not released a new version of steam controller since its original debut in 2014. Now, here comes Hori with the new Horipad for SteamIt is a wired/Bluetooth wireless controller that includes many of the same buttons on a Steam Deck.
Despite sporting the Valve logo and being designed to support Steam gaming, it’s missing in several key areas. It doesn’t have rumble, a headphone jack, or trackpads. It does have two rear paddles and two programmable buttons below the bottom joystick, but that’s two fewer back buttons than the Steam Deck has.
It costs around $50, but it’s only going to be available in Japan this summer, with no word on a Western release. That’s not a bad price, but anyone who wants to rumble is better off with a more readily available controller option if they don’t already have one. According to Valve’s recently released stats, average daily Steam controller usage on the world’s largest PC gaming platform has risen from 5% in 2018 to 15%.
First of all, there are some caveats to this. In 2018, Valve Recorded a peak of 18.5 million concurrent users, but in 2023, the company boasted 33 million concurrent users. That’s not nearly double the average player count without some different kinds of players moving in who may not be interested in the old M&K setup.
It would be helpful if you also considered the changing hardware landscape. Valve says 10% of those controller users are on. Steam covers. Another 85% are split between PlayStation and Xbox controllers, with more falling on Microsoft’s side — less than half of those using a controller with support for Valve’s Steam Input controller.
It’s interesting how Valve would consider the Steam Deck as a controller for their purposes. Valve’s statistics do not make it clear whether other wearable devices like the Asus ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Goor any smaller brand also count as drivers.
A Steam Deck is much more than just a screen connected to a controller. If you treat the Steam Deck like a PC, you can be more clever with how and what you use it for. I’ve written a complete guide of applications and clients that you can access with Steam Decks. Most gamers will probably use it as a vehicle for on-the-go gaming,
The mouse and keyboard aren’t floating on a tide of irrelevance, but a contingent of older gamers seem to gravitate toward controllers. There is a push among the competitive Call of Dutyplayers to switch to controller.
Then there are people like me: the aged and the decrepit. I look at my desk, at the old keyboard that sits there, so worn-out the finish on the WASD keys has been worn down to bare plastic by the rough tips of my fingers, and I get sick at the thought of chaining myself to a desk for any lengthy gaming session.
Everyone has a preference. At the moment, I have my steam coverPlayStation 5 DualSense, or SCUF Envision Proand that’s specifically for PC. I have a Gulikit KK3 Max that I’ve been trying out a few times when I want to give it a hard go with my brother’s Nintendo Switch, but my poor mouse and keyboard will just keep rotting away unless I put them to some specific use.
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