3 ms·

"Consistently positive reviews from users" are not enough. Steam Link became obsolete, and the controller just didn't sell (despite being excellent IMO!) This

by mobiledev2014 5y ago

"Consistently positive reviews from users" are not enough. Steam Link became obsolete, and the controller just didn't sell (despite being excellent IMO!) This could see a similar fate, or it could be the breakout hit made possible by their learning from past hardware

reincarnate0x14 5y ago
Steam controller suffered from doing too much, I think. People want plug-in and go from their couch games, having a fully programmable all-singing all-dance super controller turned out to be more effort than most wanted to deal with.
- ThatMedicIsASpy 5y ago
  Steams built in controller customization features are worth it alone - for every controller. No digi pad makes them bad for retro games but I have others for that.
- brundolf 5y ago
  The main value-prop for the steam controller was its touch pads, which allowed you to play mouse-based games from the couch (in an era when controller support for PC games was spotty). They were a cool idea, and they worked, but what ended up happening is all the games just added support for regular controllers, and that was just a better experience.
22c 5y ago
> the controller just didn't sell From my perspective, the controller was never sold. I could not buy it anywhere, I am assuming they were only made in a relatively small batch and sold mostly in mainland US. I had been looking since it was released for a place to buy it at a reasonable price, but could only find exorbitantly priced resellers that would ship from USA.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- ihuman 5y ago
  They sold at least 1.3 million steam controllers [1]. That's relatively small compared to the 3 major console's controllers, but it's still a lot. IIRC the only place Valve officially sold it was on Steam itself. Based on forum posts from the time and Valve's Index shipping FAQ, they could ship it to the USA and Europe. While you can't buy it there anymore, its store page is still up [2] [1] I can't link it directly, so look for "Steam Controllers are played with a diverse set of games" https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/1712946892833213377 https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail... [2] https://store.steampowered.com/app/353370/Steam_Controller/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/353370/Steam_Controller/
  - 22c 5y ago
    >IIRC the only place Valve officially sold it was on Steam itself. As far as I know, that's correct, but it was region locked. You could not officially buy it where I live.

reincarnate0x14 5y ago

Steam controller suffered from doing too much, I think. People want plug-in and go from their couch games, having a fully programmable all-singing all-dance super controller turned out to be more effort than most wanted to deal with.

ThatMedicIsASpy 5y ago
Steams built in controller customization features are worth it alone - for every controller. No digi pad makes them bad for retro games but I have others for that.
brundolf 5y ago
The main value-prop for the steam controller was its touch pads, which allowed you to play mouse-based games from the couch (in an era when controller support for PC games was spotty). They were a cool idea, and they worked, but what ended up happening is all the games just added support for regular controllers, and that was just a better experience.

22c 5y ago

> the controller just didn't sell From my perspective, the controller was never sold. I could not buy it anywhere, I am assuming they were only made in a relatively small batch and sold mostly in mainland US. I had been looking since it was released for a place to buy it at a reasonable price, but could only find exorbitantly priced resellers that would ship from USA.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
ihuman 5y ago
They sold at least 1.3 million steam controllers [1]. That's relatively small compared to the 3 major console's controllers, but it's still a lot. IIRC the only place Valve officially sold it was on Steam itself. Based on forum posts from the time and Valve's Index shipping FAQ, they could ship it to the USA and Europe. While you can't buy it there anymore, its store page is still up [2] [1] I can't link it directly, so look for "Steam Controllers are played with a diverse set of games" https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/1712946892833213377 https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail... [2] https://store.steampowered.com/app/353370/Steam_Controller/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/353370/Steam_Controller/
- 22c 5y ago
  >IIRC the only place Valve officially sold it was on Steam itself. As far as I know, that's correct, but it was region locked. You could not officially buy it where I live.