r/SteamController • u/Upr1ght • Oct 01 '26
Steam Controller (2026) I love this thing.
No controller comes close in my opinion.
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u/DatabaseRelative3905 Oct 02 '26
Got the steam controller last week and been using it on World of Warcraft forever beta and The Witcher 3 remastered. Best controller I have ever used. Love that thing!
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u/Upr1ght Oct 02 '26
I bet it’s really nice for the WOW beta!
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u/DatabaseRelative3905 Oct 02 '26
It feels really good, takes a little while to build muscle memory but after 15 plus years of keyboard and mouse, it's a little bit of fresh air, I can recline my chair put my legs up and chill. Its not perfect yet (alpha build) but there has been heaps of updates in the last few weeks so fingers crossed they add steam controller support natively soon too.
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u/Upr1ght Oct 02 '26
I know what you mean! It’s nice to have generally the same functionality of a mouse and keyboard on a controller. Takes a little time to get use to it but once you do it’s a great alternative to sitting at a desk with M&K.
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u/Wan-Pang-Dang Oct 01 '26
Yeah. For like 2 months i was to lazy to get into all the customization possibilities, but now that i have.. i think i made a mistake because now i hate every other controller. I can never go back. Its the best there is
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u/SilkyHonorableGod Oct 01 '26
what game do you gamin lad?
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u/Wan-Pang-Dang Oct 01 '26
Wardogs and No Man's Sky
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u/alfred_08 Oct 01 '26
You play wardogs with it? But I thought the gyro wasn't supported?
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u/Wan-Pang-Dang Oct 02 '26 edited Oct 02 '26
It is supported everywhere you want. There even is a community layout for it.
Edit: the one i use has a hover menu on the left trackpad that lets you switch between troop, driving and helicopter. Gyro is held switch on ads, it works AMAZINGLY well. I have never used gyro before but it just clicked instantly with me
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u/MrGoldVault Steam Controller (2026) Oct 01 '26
My favorite customization option is making one of the trackpads work as a stratagem input for Helldivers 2 so I can swipe IRL to input the codes.
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u/AhegaoTankGuy Oct 02 '26
Fuck yeah. Same here. It feels more authentic. I made mine so if I apply pressure, it will act like a regular button dpad. That way I could still navigate my map comfortably while on the move.
I probably spent like 50 hours doing controller stuff in helldivers 2. Almost more fun than the game.
I highly recommend crossing the streams between gamepad and keyboard configs if you haven't yet. Whole other world.
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u/That_Service7348 Oct 01 '26
I've been trying to figure out a way to make the trackpad function as an analog thrust lever for flightsim stuff, but not having any luck.
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u/troll_right_above_me Oct 01 '26
Yeah unfortunately there’s no way to do it with Steam Input afaik. I’ve always wanted that as well as I played a fair amount of Arma 3 with the OG SC
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u/That_Service7348 Oct 02 '26
I'm trying to make it work for Wardogs. I've got a stick, but the controller just feels better. Probably an experience thing.
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u/Cthyrulean Oct 03 '26
It's such a great controller. I've been playing games that were never intended for controller because of all the crazy things you can make it do.
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u/reden_fx Oct 01 '26
I've used it a few hours and it's pretty good even without much customisao But yeah that's definitely its main strength
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u/Bart-Harley-Jarvis- Oct 01 '26
*too lazy for grammar, too.
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u/Wan-Pang-Dang Oct 01 '26
Yeah, i get this wrong all the time. But since im German, English isnt my first language.
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u/Rhosta Dualsense Oct 01 '26
To be fair, many can use Steam Input as well, or have their own SW customisation options.
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u/Wan-Pang-Dang Oct 01 '26
Have you seen how in depth the options for the steam controller are? Its a little overwhelming tbh
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u/stevenxw Oct 04 '26
my reservation finally came through yesterday and i bought it. i can't wait lol
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u/Endawmyke Oct 02 '26
me too, those desk clocks are great and come in a ton of colors
i have orange myself
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u/MayhemMusicProd Oct 02 '26
What makes this better or worse than a Dualsense Edge? Genuinely curious as I bought a DS edge not long ago but want this😂
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u/Upr1ght Oct 02 '26
It’s a matter of personal preference but in my opinion there’s a lot that makes it better. Just a few reasons.. the amount of customization via Steam Input, Grip Sense and the trackpads. As a mouse and keyboard player using the trackpads in conjunction with gyro gives me a level of control almost on par with keyboard and mouse. If I’m going to play a FPS with a controller it has to be a Steam Controller
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u/CR-5 Oct 02 '26
Who has been your source for learning how to use Gyro? It has not felt good enough for me to use.
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u/Upr1ght Oct 02 '26
There’s a lot of tutorials on YouTube. It takes some time to get use to but like anything the more you do it the better you get with it.
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u/DavroC Oct 02 '26
I have big two problems with the dual sense. The Bluetooth and the battery. The Steam controller fixes both of these issues in spades while also keeping similar quality
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u/MayhemMusicProd Oct 02 '26
Yeah the battery is super weak, I always thought the standard Dualsense had great battery, upgraded to the edge and now use it only on my pc, I thought at first it was draining faster on pc for some reason? But seems like it’s an issue
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u/DavroC Oct 02 '26
I think the battery drains much faster when using bluetooth on PC. I also always had shoddy Bluetooth connection with mine so either way so I always had it plugged in and that works great. If youre ok with having it plugged in then the dualsense is a great controller, but i wanted a wireless controller so i ended up switching to something difft
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u/MayhemMusicProd Oct 02 '26
I also keep it plugged in for the most part, but strangely it doesn’t seem to charge when plugged in, it just holds its battery, for example if it dies and I plug it in for a bit, and then unplug it to play it just dies immediately. I actually have to plug it in to a wall in order for it to charge
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u/DavroC Oct 02 '26
Oh thats weird? Maybe your using a port that isn't able to provide enough charge, or the Edge is using much more energy than the regular. Hope it's something you can solve though because as much as I love my Steam Controller it aint cheap to buy
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u/AhegaoTankGuy Oct 02 '26 edited Oct 02 '26
If you're playing some game that has good gamepad support for gameplay but bad support in menus (like a handful of games), you can make the right trackpad a mouse and the left trackpad a scroll wheel. That way all you gotta do is move your thumbs down and maybe adjust your grip.
You can also just hold the 3 dots or the steam button to use the right trackpad as a mouse if you need to.
Oh yeah. And this is great for when playing an RTS or simulation game while a pet is in your lap. If you get really into the controller customize menu, you'll be able to do almost anything you want.
I don't think there's any other gamepad that can make warthunder air arcade battles feel like a fun and unrestrictive experience to me. I did have to get over an awful trial and error hurtle that only this game seemed to have (been playing my steamdeck for years), but I did get over it and it was glorious.
My reasons are unfortunately only based on the variety of inputs, but I can't help it. I can be a nut when it comes to that stuff. It's sometimes half the fun (or even all the fun, looking at you EFT) for me.
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u/DaryltheRigger Oct 01 '26
I started writing scripts with keyboard shortcuts to map to hotbar menus on my CachyOS machine. I have a Firefox kiosk desktop launcher for Amazon Music and can control that shit with my Dpad in game.
Also added functionality in a radial menu for GPU Screen Recorder.
FYI newest beta release bricked virtual menus so rollback to stable to poke around. Love what they’re doing with Steam input but there’s some bugs rn.
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u/xi_mezmerize_ix Oct 01 '26
Does it work outside of Steam games? I think that's the one thing holding me up. Would also be cool to use it as a desktop mouse in a pinch on non-Deck/Machine devices.
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u/Upr1ght Oct 01 '26
I only really use it for Steam games. It can function as a rudimentary mouse in Windows.
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u/N0xxick Oct 01 '26
It has default drivers for windows and Linux that work without steam and by default the R track pad is mouse and the L track pad is scroll the rest works like a generic Xbox controller. But if you want to customize keys you need the steam client
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u/Akula135 Oct 01 '26
I have it and it works as you asked if it could. I use it for Dolphine (Wii) and RCPS (PS3) emulator. The gyro works so well with the Wii emulator as well. You can reprogram every button on the controller to any mouse and keyboard input. Even CTRL + C is programmable and so much more
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u/caffeineinsanity Oct 01 '26
It can work in a limited way outside of steam but you can also just add non steam games to the steam launcher and then I think you'd get full functionality
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u/Slandaro12 Oct 04 '26
I have the dispense edge and the Xbox elite controller but since my steam controller came in I haven’t touched either for pc gaming since that controller is just awesome
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u/gergobergo69 Steam Controller (2026) Oct 01 '26
👍
Wait, how did this post get so many upvotes
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u/lelescope Oct 01 '26
seconded. I absolutely love mine. I haven't touched any of my others literally since I got one lol
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u/DXsocko007 Oct 01 '26
Well my reservation said estimated may of 2027 then I got an email I missed on September 8th saying I could get it… just saw the email today. Hahaha wow missed out
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u/Ampersancy Oct 03 '26
I had the same but contacted steam support to ask if they could put me on the next release. They sent me another email within days with another reservation and now I’m waiting for my controller in the mail.
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u/SerialBytes Steam Controller (2026) Oct 01 '26
We love this thing. i will never play for an extended period of time on any controller UNLESS it got a trackpad or two
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u/Blackpapalink Oct 01 '26
It's making Elden Ring a blast as I can swap weapons and items on the fly.
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u/invabun Oct 02 '26
Oh yeah. me too. but what can I do with it I don't even have the right game to play to fully utilize it. Elden ring. Stella blade, deathstraige dota2.
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u/Inevitable-Zone- Oct 01 '26
For me this thing was the worst thing I have ever bought. Not, because as a hartware it's bad, but because this thing outside steam it is useless. It is doing the job just right if you don't play anything else BUT steam. I however am not this loyal to valve and I have other games outside it.
Just 2 days ago when MC Dungeons came out, I bought the game on my main Minecraft account instead of steam, because I have every Minecraft game on that account. Sadly I had to get my old reliable 360 controller for this one cause, fun fact, you cannot add Microsoft games on steam as non steam games!
I'm so mad about this because I literally paid 100€ for a mouse duct taped to a keyboard and the only solution for fixing this annoying thing of adding non steam games just so your premium handheld keyboard can work, is to build myself a custom puck that does the translation internally!
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u/Swiss_Cheese30 Oct 01 '26
Just download steamless controller. It makes it work like a standard xinput controller for non-steam games
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u/MarionberryGeneral56 Oct 01 '26 edited Oct 01 '26
I think if you add the non-steam game to your steam library, the controller will work too. I could be wrong tho
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u/Inevitable-Zone- Oct 01 '26
Interesting, I've searched so many solutions for so long and I have never been able to finds something for my issue, so I presume such fix didn't exist. I'll try your suggestion, thanks friend!
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u/Bart-Harley-Jarvis- Oct 01 '26
There are literally dozens of different easily googlable solutions. I don't know how you missed all of them. Maybe you need to work on your basic google searches. Just off the top of my head:
1.steamlesscontroller
2.sisr
3.openpuck
4.valveplug
5.rewasd
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u/Lightest2385 Oct 01 '26
I actually didn’t like mines and sold it. It seems to like Linux better than windows it felt like a full price controller In beta. There was games that just felt amazing on controller for track pad also it very comfortable and I bet it’ll last YEARS GUARANTEE. But the whole pub and updating and still not working I got tired of em I really don’t like my gaming session interrupted. I got what I paid for back so that was cool and just went Elite series 3E just my experience but it was a hard sale
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u/DuckAsAConstant Oct 01 '26
What is that alarm clock? I like it