[[2026 Cafe Posts]]  The Steam Controller is likely to be the only thing from Valve’s trio of recent hardwear announcements that I’ll be able to use. This is because the AI bubble is likely to make those cost $12380172 or whatever. But I’m lucky because I love it! The Steam Controller is about the size of an Xbox controller, perhaps slightly larger. I have [BIG, MEATY CLAWS](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzYMi5wSc7g) so this works out quite well for me. It was designed with ergonomics in mind. I was worried it’d use the same buttons as the Steam Deck, but these all feel much better in my opinion, from the sticks to the triggers. What makes the Steam Controller so enticing is my personal use case. I basically only play games in two ways now: 1. on my PC 2. On my couch, with a Steam Deck docked under the TV. I never use the Steam Deck as an actual handheld device, because I’m a freak. Regular controllers work (more or less), but they’re missing a key ingredient: the touchpads. The touchpads are godlike. I want every PC controller to have touchpads. They’re haptic, and thanks to how big they are you can just straight up use them instead of the thumbsticks. I personally don’t, however. I customize them for a bunch of other stuff depending on the game (or even game genre). Some games I use them as a straight up mouse, which is great because every game loves to use **Destiny**’s[^1] dogshit UI nowadays. Some games I create a radial menu for common keyboard shortcuts — handy for menu swapping in stuff like [[Diablo IV]]. And there are my favorite things to put in a controller: back buttons. They’re the best back buttons, because you can reprogram them to be whatever you want, instead of just replicating the AXBY face-buttons.  It being a PC controller means that you can remap all the other buttons, too. Honestly there’s so much customizability that it can be overwhelming. I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t spend a few hours tinkering before I used the controller. But I’m a freak that loves to optimize everything within eye-shot, so don’t be like me, maybe. Oh and it has gyro controls that work seamlessly too, so you can make micro-adjustments before clicking your 1 billionth head in [[Warframe]]. There’s one key potential deal-breaker here: The Steam Controller only natively works with SteamOS. I’ve seen workarounds begin to spring up, and I’m sure they’ll be refined. But as of this writing, I couldn’t get the controller to work with *any* of my games that aren’t part of the Steam ecosystem. So if [[Steam]] isn’t your primary platform — first of all that’s wild, I’d love to link up and learn more — but I’d skip out on this controller.  The other potential deal-breaker here is the price: $100 is nothing to sneeze at in these trying times. But for me the investment has already paid off. It’s the only controller I use nowadays, even dethroning my needlessly and wonderfully over-designed APEX 5. I hope more stock pours in soon so more people can give the Steam Controller a try. [^1]: RIP King