Valve’s new Steam controller just made console gaming look antiquated

If there was any doubt that Valve’s SteamOS would be like other open source projects – cheap and clunky – you can erase that doubt now. The controller alone is so innovative, so elegant, it may be better than what the big box console companies are putting out.

As expected, the third of this week’s trio of Steam-related announcements from Valve is a new controller designed to be used with SteamOS in the living room. And from what Valve has revealed, this isn’t a mere copy of the now practically default dual-stick design, but a new kind of controller that will even work with PC games designed for a mouse and keyboard.

Where the two thumbsticks sit on a traditional gamepad, Valve’s controller has a pair of circular, textured, concave, high-resolution, clickable trackpads that allow for “far higher fidelity input than has previously been possible with traditional handheld controllers” that “approaches that of a desktop mouse,” Valve said.