Valve announces Steam Controller

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itspriyank

Forerunner
http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamController/

A different kind of gamepad
We set out with a singular goal: bring the Steam experience, in its entirety, into the living-room. We knew how to build the user interface, we knew how to build a machine, and even an operating system. But that still left input — our biggest missing link. We realized early on that our goals required a new kind of input technology — one that could bridge the gap from the desk to the living room without compromises. So we spent a year experimenting with new approaches to input and we now believe we’ve arrived at something worth sharing and testing with you.

Complete catalog
The Steam Controller is designed to work with all the games on Steam: past, present, and future. Even the older titles in the catalog and the ones which were not built with controller support. (We’ve fooled those older games into thinking they’re being played with a keyboard and mouse, but we’ve designed a gamepad that’s nothing like either one of those devices.) We think you’ll agree that we’re onto something with the Steam Controller, and now we want your help with the design process.

Superior performance
Traditional gamepads force us to accept compromises. We’ve made it a goal to improve upon the resolution and fidelity of input that’s possible with those devices. The Steam controller offers a new and, we believe, vastly superior control scheme, all while enabling you to play from the comfort of your sofa. Built with high-precision input technologies and focused on low-latency performance, the Steam controller is just what the living-room ordered.


Read Everything about it on Steam Website [link on top]

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And this looks amazing!!
 
Nice concept. This controller just needs the steam client, which means you can pretty much program any game to work with this controller. Not that it matters for people already having an xbox 360 controller, but still, having an option is nice. They have made it work like xpadder or pinnacle in which the controller can emulate the mouse/kb keystrokes, which is nice because now this can be used for older games in which a controller is not supported natively.

Plus, this will work with the steam box, which in turn would be used to play/stream the same games without the need to take the computer to the living room, which is awesome. I just hope these touch sensitive controls work out nicely without any lags/skips and we might have a winner here. Touchscreen, I hear is fully programmable and can house infinite buttons, which is awesome. Imagine using this controller for playing GRID or GTA5 and be able to chat with other players without a need for reaching out for the keyboard. Possibilities are endless with this, if implemented properly. And since its steam, its not likely that the buttons would be pre programmed and not changeable (which is not the case with xbox 360 controller in which the bindings are set or they give you the options of pre-defined control schemes only for most games). So, everybody can use every button and the screen as per their convenience and not what developers think is right.
 
Here's a video where they demonstrate the controller for non-optimized games. Games include Portal 2, Civ 5, CS:GO.
 
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