About five years after Valve discontinued its experimental gamepad, a new Steam gamepad is on the way. But there is one catch: it is not manufactured by Valve. It is made by Hori, a Japanese brand known for its high-quality gamepads for consoles.
It’s not specifically called the Steam Controller 2, either. The officially licensed gamepad is called the Wireless Horipad for Steam, and it goes on sale in Japan starting October 31. The company hasn’t said anything about a global release, but it did say that the price in Japan will be 7,890 Japanese yen (about $49).
As for the controller itself, it’s not exactly a successor to the original Steam Controller. The Horipad doesn’t have rumble or the signature trackpads. But it does have menu buttons that match those on the Steam Deck. Like the high-end controllers from Sony and Microsoft, this one comes with programmable buttons.
There are four, to be specific, two of them are rear pedals and the other two are under the D-pad and the analog stick. The company’s official promotion also suggests that the Wireless Horipad for Steam supports a rapid fire and gyroscope feature.
Another interesting aspect of this Steam controller is that the sticks have touch sensors. You can customize them for different inputs, and there’s also the option to change the triggers from analog to digital mode. The latter will make the gamepad ideal for multiple genres, including racing and shooters.
Customizing the Horipad Wireless for Steam should be easy, as the company will offer a dedicated app. Also, while it’s marketed as a wireless gamepad, it supports wired connection via USB-C. As for the wireless part, it’s not via a 2.4GHz dongle https://www.corsair.com/us/en/explorer/gamer/headsets/24ghz-vs-bluetooth-which-is-better. It’s instead via Bluetooth, so latency won’t be as low as some of the other controllers out there (pre-order the 8bitDo Ultimate 2C from Amazon).
