Valve’s next mystery gadget may be imminent

Honestly what I want it for is games that don't support a controller. The Steam Deck is my favorite way to play action RPGs like Torchlight/2 and Diablo 3 for example, because the touchpads work great.

From using the steam deck all other controllers on the market are a pretty significant step down in functionality. I never used the original steam controller but with some games especially where I have a good custom layout that uses the trackpads and rear buttons it feels like playing with one hand tied behind my back with the PS5 controller.

I'd love a controller that's exactly the same input layout as the steam deck so I can dock it and keep my control layout identical.

I found that it depends on the game and how it's set up. I've used the steam controller on a lot of games and it worked well.

As you've considered it really comes down to how it's configured. And you have to reconfigure it for pretty much every game you play. And steam itself doesn't provide you with good configurations most of the time.

I love the controller but wouldn't recommend it because of the amount of time it takes to make it work well in each game.

A PS4 controller is just plug and play, and is what I would actually recommend to most people.

Yes I agree, the Steam Deck controls are great because they work as a standard controller with some additions (trackpads and back buttons).

The original Steam Controller however lacks a right joystick and a proper dpad. Yes, I know there are touchpads that are supposed to replace them but it's not the same.

I have one but I barely ever used it.

Me too. I tried it out but it's really not my thing.

The Steam Link was better but for some reason performs much worse for me than GameStream (since discontinued, use Sunshine instead) and Moonlight.

yah, they put the joystick on the wrong side.

Have you tried getting gyro to work? I played CS GO at a pretty high level with it, the aiming was really easy, and spray control felt natural. People lost their mind knowing they were wrecked by a dude with a controller

No problem, but a WiFi controller is a bit like reinventing a worse wheel

No problem, just pointing out that it would be unusual for a controller to have 5GHz WiFi. We are guessing what kind of device Valve is making.This device having 5GHz WiFi lowers the chances of it being a controller.

Bluetooth I understand and makes perfect sense in a controller. Is a very common way to connect a human interface device wirelessly. It is a direct connection and can be very lower power and doesn't need to transfer alot of data. Not only did the Steam controller support Bluetooth like you mentioned but i believe the recent Xbox and PS5 controllers support Bluetooth as well. I think even the Nintendo Wii controllers were Bluetooth.

WiFi doesn't make much sense in a controller when Bluetooth already exists. Unless the controller has features that would benefit using WiFI over Bluetooth.

For example I could see maybe an advantage in a steam steaming/steam remote play situation. Instead of a controller going Bluetooth to local device and that local device passing the commands to the remote device, the controller could talk directly over the network to the remote device saving some latency for a more responsive experience. But I don't know why they would pick 5GHz that is more of a higher bandwidth application as far as i understand. You don't need that for sending basic controller commands 2.4GHz would be more than enough. Maybe it has something to do with Latency if your 2.4GHz network is congested you could to go with the less congested 5GHz frequency.