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News

Valve Has Sold Half A Million Steam Controllers, Updates Coming

by Mike Futter on Jun 02, 2016 at 05:04 AM

Approximately seven months after launch, Valve has released sales data for its homegrown controller. The Steam Controller is now in the hands of 500,000 people.

Since its launch in November 2015, Valve has added a number of improvements to the device and its PC-based interface. You can now configure the controller to work with non-Steam games, set up multiple profiles for a single game activated via button press (handy for those that have different controls for walking, driving, flying, etc.), and pass-through for rumble support.

Valve will be adding additional features that allow you to assign press-and-hold, double tap, and toggle functions. The Steam Controller also supports Steam VR, with motion control functions that allow it to be used with driving games.

[Source: Valve]

 

Our Take
I’ve still not had the opportunity to try a Steam Controller, but I’m curious. Having to manually switch between control sets in games like Grand Theft Auto V and Just Cause 3 is a deterrent, though. Other controllers handle that automatically, changing schemes on the fly based on context. 500,000 units sold is good, but the ecosystem needs less friction for end-users.