Valve’s controller for their Steam Machine setups have looked interesting from the very beginning but but the company recently announced that that the form factor would be changing. They’ve since released an updated image of the device, showing that they have included a direction pad and altered the orientation of the face buttons.
In terms of configuration, as Ars Technica points out, Steam seems to have adopted a look that is quite similar to the Xbox 360 controller – particularly with the face buttons which feature identical colouring and lettering. Switching between different controllers on various platforms usually brings some confusion so it’s probably a good thing that Valve have opted for something familiar (for something unfamiliar, check out some of the Steam Controller prototypes in the upcoming issue of Stuff Magazine).
The two touchpads, which are replacing the established thumbsticks, are still in place and Valve has marked the Start and Select buttons with what looks to be media controls, suggesting that you’ll be able to control video with the controller on a Steam Machine.
Valve intends to officially reveal the revamped Steam controller at the Game Developers Conferece (GDC) this year. We’ll have an update as any new features are unveiled but for now it looks as though they’ve taken more than a page from the current crop of console controllers.
Source: Ars Technica