Steam Beta gets battery indicator for wireless gamepads as the new Steam Controller nears

I am preemptively disappointed at these being sold out before I even get a chance to load the order page.

Last edited by apotato on 26 Apr 2026 at 6:56 am UTC

Price leaked via an early review: $99

Have Valve talked at all about using the Steam Controller on games outside of Steam? I own more games in my GOG library and if the controller doesn't function with games not added to the Steam launcher, that's a deal breaker for me. I don't even need the touchpad and gyro to work, just having the main controller function as a Xinput pad would be good enough for me.

Last edited by PaldinoX on 25 Apr 2026 at 6:16 pm UTC

Quoting: PaldinoXHave Valve talked at all about using the Steam Controller on games outside of Steam? I own more games in my GOG library and if the controller doesn't function with games not added to the Steam launcher, that's a deal breaker for me. I don't even need the touchpad and gyro to work, just having the main controller function as a Xinput pad would be good enough for me.

That's a Xinput controller. A recent kernel and recent sdl2 or sdl3 should be sufficient.

Last edited by rea987 on 25 Apr 2026 at 6:44 pm UTC

Quoting: PaldinoXI don't even need the touchpad and gyro to work, just having the main controller function as a Xinput pad would be good enough for me.

If you don't need the touchpad or gyro to work, why do you want a $100 Steam Controller? There are several very good third party controllers that work just fine in Linux, for Steam, GOG and otherwise. I suggest the 8bitDo Ultimate 2.

I wonder if the sc-controller maintainers are planning to support the Steam Controller 2. Could be neat to use it for Luanti or SuperTuxKart.

Quoting: kuhpunktPrice leaked via an early review: $99

I forget how much I paid for the original Steam Controller, but I'm pretty sure it was less than half of that. I realize there are "premium-priced" controllers on the market, but $99 seems high.

Quoting: PaldinoXHave Valve talked at all about using the Steam Controller on games outside of Steam? I own more games in my GOG library and if the controller doesn't function with games not added to the Steam launcher, that's a deal breaker for me. I don't even need the touchpad and gyro to work, just having the main controller function as a Xinput pad would be good enough for me.

you can change your desktop layout to a normal gamepad layout to make it work

Quoting: kuhpunktPrice leaked via an early review: $99

Damn. I was hoping for closer to 70.

Quoting: Johnologue

Quoting: kuhpunktPrice leaked via an early review: $99

Damn. I was hoping for closer to 70.

Wait for a Steam sale, I guess. 😃

“ macOS

Fixed soundtrack playback not working on Apple Silicon machines. “

Sounds promising for Apple that Steam might be supporting Apple. They might even get Proton working on their OS the same way it does on Linux.

Steam Controller 1 used AA batteries, hence the lack of a battery monitor. If Steam Controller is being upgraded to rechargeable then that explains battery indicator, plus Bluetooth connectivity and you have a worthy upgrade.

Quoting: PhlebiacI realize there are "premium-priced" controllers on the market, but $99 seems high.

Eh, premium controllers (not talking about racing wheels, which can go into 4 digits, or VR equipment, which can hit 5 digits) are more like 250-ish USD, and that's without going into the silly 'expensive for the sake of being expensive' stuff like limited edition character controllers or gold-plated controllers or stuff like that.

Finally this was sorely missed. 😀

Quoting: kuhpunktPrice leaked via an early review: $99

In-line with other controllers. Not too surprised.

Quoting: kuhpunktPrice leaked via an early review: $99

Can't quite pin that on RAM, unless jacking up the controller prices is part of that plan.

I also appreciate Valve probably isn't ordering a production run comparable to what a Sony needs at minimum, but still - it's too high. The thing is, this is a compromise controller. It doesn't (apparently) have all the features a, say, Sony controller would have, and it won't replace a mouse. The potential use cases for me don't quite justify a purchase "even" at $70.

Last edited by such on 26 Apr 2026 at 11:44 am UTC

Quoting: suchIt doesn't (apparently) have all the features a, say, Sony controller would have, and it won't replace a mouse.

Let's see now, according to the announcement:

• Capacitive touch magnetic thumbsticks


• Grip sense to activate/deactivate gyro


• Twin touchpads with haptic motors


• 4 assignable back buttons

Basically seems like Sony's Dualsense but more to me, and it could conceivably replace a mouse in the same way a keyboard nub or trackball can.

Last edited by tmtvl on 26 Apr 2026 at 1:04 pm UTC

A hundred dollars will hopefully translate to around £75 or so, maybe less.

A dualsense (PS5) controller is still £65 and doesn't have the dual touchpad or rear buttons, so I'm pretty comfortable with that pricing if it pans out as I hope.

Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: Johnologue

Quoting: kuhpunktPrice leaked via an early review: $99

Damn. I was hoping for closer to 70.

Wait for a Steam sale, I guess. 😃

Quoting: scaineA hundred dollars will hopefully translate to around £75 or so, maybe less.

A dualsense (PS5) controller is still £65 and doesn't have the dual touchpad or rear buttons, so I'm pretty comfortable with that pricing if it pans out as I hope.

or around 84,45€, but well I think that one is gonna sell no matter of the price tag is 100€ or 70€.
Maybe later iterations will be priced a bit cheeper.

Let's not forget that $99 does not include tax, so the actual price is actually higher.

I was pretty disappointed to hear that the controller would be $99. But looking at other controllers on the market with less features, I didn't realise they were also in and around that price point (I thought a standard DualSense and Xbox Controller were £30-40 at most). My original Steam Controller was £50 and I remember thinking that was pretty expensive at the time, but I did it because I knew it was good hardware.

I guess given the price of other similar hardware on the market, it's not as overpriced as I was thinking. Before comparing prices and before reading this thread, I bawked at the idea of spending more than £50 on a controller at absolute maximum. But I guess that's how it is nowadays when buying first-party. Plus, as others have said, the features of this controller and the fact that it's made by Valve, and because it's exactly what I want (the Steam Deck controls but on a standalone controller I can use on my PC), I'm still going to buy it.

While I'd like it to be less, I don't think it's necessarily overpriced. I'm under the impression it's relatively well-built and repairable, it has IR beacons for VR tracking, it has the newer TMR thumbsticks, the touchpads from the Steam Deck that are supposed to be quite good...

I'd blame the broader economy, currency strength, component prices, expected sales volume loss by all the people who've been laid off not buying new gaming hardware, etc.

It's not like I'd want Valve to have made it "cheaper" in some way, that'd be worse.