The original Steam Controller, which has been defunct now for half a decade, had a rocky history. Well, perhaps not so much rocky as controversial, it having a plethora of diehard fanboys and fangirls but also more than a smattering of detractors, including our very own hardware overlord Dave James. Now—someone shield Dave's ears—there's talk of a second iteration already being in mass production.
Valve boffin and leaker Brad Lynch shared on X (via The Verge) that, in addition to a VR controller, the Steam Controller 2, codenamed "Ibex" is "being tooled for a mass production goal in their factories right now" and "that's why I know they're in later stages of production."
Codename for Steam Controller 2 is “Ibex”Separate product from Deckard’s “Roy” controller(s)Both are being tooled for a mass production goal in their factories right now. That’s why I know they’re in later stages of productizationNovember 19, 2024
Presumably by "their factories" Brad means Valve's factories, given both are Valve products. This would possibly shed some light on whether the Steam Controller 2 would be produced in-house or with help from a third party, something which—along with everything else about the Steam Controller 2—has remained unclear.
We first heard about a second Steam Controller back in 2022 when Steam Deck designer Lawrence Yang stated "yeah, we want to make it happen. It's just a question of how and when."
If this rumour's true, it looks like that "when" might be very soon.
The original Steam Controller ran for a fair few years up until 2019 when it was discontinued. During its lifespan, it had an ardent following of dedicated proponents espousing the benefits of the controller's versatile design: two trackpads, gyro movement, and back-paddles. Using custom configs, the controller, these proponents argued, allowed you to play mouse-and-keyboard games much easier than a standard controller does.
One problem, however, was that there were no official baseline profiles, so you had to comb through community-made profiles, and when you got one that worked well it often wasn't the quickest and easiest thing to get used to. Another problem was that the build quality wasn't great, although the build quality of Valve hardware has obviously improved massively since then.
Plus, as our Dave argued back in 2022, there wasn't much of a reason to use a Steam Controller when you could either use an easier-to-use, better-built, standard one, or otherwise just use a mouse and keyboard. There'd have been more of a market for the Steam Controller if there was more of a market for Steam couch gaming, but the Steam Machines Valve pushed out were too late, came sporting Windows rather than SteamOS, and didn't catch on.
I asked Dave for comment on this latest Steam Controller 2 rumour and in response I got a picture of a whale and a plant pot hurtling towards the ground: "Hello, ground!" and "Oh no, not again." Although that's only the sentiment if Valve were to use exactly the same design again, and it might not. Valve has a tendency to only release things when it's totally confident it's doing something new.
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The thing is, though, even if it did go for the same design, I could see there being more room for a Steam Controller 2 today than there was for the original Steam Controller way back when. That's because, despite the abandoned Shield and Steam Machine projects, there's more room for couch Steam gaming these days, primarily thanks to remote play and ubiquitous options for screen mirroring and such.
For instance, I often beam the Lenovo Legion Go up to the big screen while sitting back on the couch, and before I did that I'd often use remote play on my laptop to do the same.
The ease of using remote play and the prevalence of handhelds and docks might, I think, make much more sense of a Steam Controller today than it did back in the days of the first-gen Steam Controller. Heck, I sometimes even use an external controller for my handheld when I'm not streaming it to the big screen, for example sat up in bed, using the Legion Go's built-in stand.
Throw in some Steam Deck- or Index controller-esque build quality and it might do well. Although, saying all this, we don't even know for certain whether Valve will opt for the same trackpad design as the first-gen. It would probably make more sense for Valve to opt for a trackpad and thumbstick design such as on the Steam Deck. That'd be fitting, too: The Steam Controller experiment helps lead to the Steam Deck, then the Steam Deck helps lead to the Steam Controller 2.
Personally, given we know next to nothing about the Steam Controller, I'm holding out hope that it's just a really solid, normal controller—no trackpads or anything. Not for any actual reason, but just because I revel in controversy and the thought of the stink it'd stir makes me chuckle. That, or a giant red button the likes of the 8BitDo Super Buttons. And announce it on April 1, of course.
Nah, jokes aside, trackpad that badboi up. It'll be interesting to see what the detractors make of the design in today's gaming landscape where it arguably makes more sense to use one.
