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Valve gives Steam a nice upgrade for controller-friendly games

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After recently tweaking Steam Input and the Steam Client, Valve has now upgraded the main Steam Store to show off controller support for games.

They've updated the main Controller-Friendly Game Hub, allowing you to filter specifically by controller type between Xbox and PlayStation DualShock and DualSense. Making it easier than ever to ensure you're finding games that support your main controller. Example below:

Store pages for individual games also had their controller support status expanded. Down the right-side of pages were features are listed, you'll now see bits like this to indicate what controllers they work with:

There's more too including new search filtering options for specific controller models, Steam Library updates to show controller support more clearly and new filtering for your Steam Library (including for Big Picture Mode).

Speaking about why they're now expanding all this they said there were "over 3 Billion game sessions that included a controller in the past year" and of that 60% were with an Xbox controller, 27% PlayStation and the rest a mixture of Steam Deck, Switch Pro, and hundreds of other controller models. Four years ago that controller gaming session count was only 990 million, so it's a huge increase in people gaming with controllers and back then only 19% were using PlayStation controllers so their popularity has increased a lot too.

What do you prefer to game with?

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Misc, Steam, Valve
21 Likes
About the author -
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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16 comments
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Pengling Nov 21, 2023
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I noticed this start showing up when browsing Steam a few days ago - it's a neat little addition!

QuoteWhat do you prefer to game with?
Steam Deck primarily, and if/when docked I use an Xbox Series X controller.
buckysrevenge Nov 21, 2023
I have a Steam Deck, a couple Steam controllers, a Stadia controller, and a third party Xbox controller that all get used regularly
Ehvis Nov 21, 2023
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QuoteWhat do you prefer to game with?

1. MKB
2. MKB
3. MKB
4. MKB
5. Controller. Maybe :)

I've only ever used xbox controllers (and steam deck), so I can't really make a good choice between them. But I suspect that I'd not be a fan of the left stick placement on PS controllers.


Last edited by Ehvis on 21 November 2023 at 2:00 pm UTC
Eri Nov 21, 2023
Is the details button in each game's library page, next to the manage button, also new? Or did I just noticed and kept looking that info on the store page for years because I'm blind?
Talon1024 Nov 21, 2023
Quoting: Ehvis
QuoteWhat do you prefer to game with?

1. MKB
2. MKB
3. MKB
4. MKB
5. Controller. Maybe :)

Same here.

However, I'm wondering if my Logitech F310 controller counts as an Xbox controller, since it has the same buttons.
dindon Nov 21, 2023
It's nice but I've yet to see a game where you couldn't add support in 10secs to your controller using Steam input community profiles. Such an amazing feature.
Pyretic Nov 21, 2023
I use my PlayStation controller whenever my Steam Deck is plugged in, mainly because it comes with gyro and I have a PS4 anyway. I wish Steam could implement a feature that automatically replaced the Xbox controller textures with PS4 glyphs. But I can understand how much of a nightmare that would be to implement.
CatKiller Nov 21, 2023
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Quoting: PyreticI use my PlayStation controller whenever my Steam Deck is plugged in, mainly because it comes with gyro and I have a PS4 anyway. I wish Steam could implement a feature that automatically replaced the Xbox controller textures with PS4 glyphs. But I can understand how much of a nightmare that would be to implement.
Technically it already does: if a developer uses Steam Input for their input handling the game can automatically get whichever glyphs are appropriate for whichever controller is being used, provided it's a controller that Steam knows about (which is all the major ones). Developers that pick some other library to handle controller input end up with Xbox prompts because Microsoft declared that Xbox is the Windows "standard," and developers have to put in extra effort to also have anything else.
razze Nov 22, 2023
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I'm kind of wondering, if they are preparing this for something they are working on internally, like they said, we're doing HDR for external displays...
dubigrasu Nov 22, 2023
I only play with controllers, I wouldn't even know how to play with MKB although I used to, many years ago. I blame the Steam Controller for that, once I got it in may hands I forgot about MKB, is that good. Besides, I'm now a couch player, no place for MKB.
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