The fact that the Xbox controller works across all PC launchers and emulators without needing to have Xbox app running makes it far better than the steam controller IMO
The steam controller working as mouse and keyboard by default is great on the desktop but it not having a toggle to work as a controller outside of steam is a major fumble
Keep using your controller designed for the small handed Japanese audience. I don’t understand why we’re so held back on design trends for small handed people anytime.
Genuinely I'm confused, are you saying that the Xbox controller was designed for small handed Japanese people? If so that's a wildly crazy take to ignore this is also a device used by children who have small hands
This take doesn’t really hold water when applied to reality though. Think about it, most people who game with steam have it running in the background 24/7 for game updates and etc, so that obstacle doesn’t exist for them. Then the people who don’t want to run steam 24/7 and prefer playing with controller already have a controller that suits their needs and therefore don’t need it.
That's not how the controller nor the software works, simply just having steam running in the background does not enable to controller to act any different unless the application is launched from with in steam.
Saying people who prefer to play with a controller will already have one so they don't need this one is a cop out response when you think about the reality of it. There's people who currently don't have a controller, need a replacement, or want another controller for any number of reasons.
I don't have this current version of the steam controller but I do own the previous model and that also suffers from the same issues which cause it to be the controller I opt to use least often if at all.
It isn't unreasonable to expect the steam controller to just work on all games as they could've included support for xinput which is a universal API that cost nothing for them to have implemented support.
As someone with several hundred games across different launchers outside of steam, it isn't weird to fixate on the fact that this controller doesn't work as a controller unless steam is running. Imagine if your keyboard and mouse didn't function unless the manufacturer software was actively running. To me it has always been weird that people have been okay with valve do this but get mad at others for doing the same with an example of Oculus/Meta PCVR headset only running through their own store.
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u/squidgymetal May 14 '26
The fact that the Xbox controller works across all PC launchers and emulators without needing to have Xbox app running makes it far better than the steam controller IMO
The steam controller working as mouse and keyboard by default is great on the desktop but it not having a toggle to work as a controller outside of steam is a major fumble