Steam Controller Trades Touchscreen for Buttons

[Lillowh]

Wow, the fact that everyone in this thread is severely misinformed, including the writer of the article is saddening. Yes, it was a touchscreen. But it was never planned to be just a touchscreen. It said right on the official release that it was a touchscreen where each corner square was an actual button underneath the screen. Press down, and the screen button would click. You still had your buttons, but you'd have the ability to quickly swipe between what each of those 4 buttons did,which gave the ability for cool things like macro sets or 1-9 weapon sets in games you carry weapons Doom style. My interest has now gone from piqued to apathetic, good job general population, being too stupid to adjust to the future, as usual.

And no, it's not just from user feedback. During testing they've noticed that players spent an inordinate amount of timing looking at the controller's screen instead of the game. Something they'd like to avoid causing.

Then that was entirely Valve's fault for not having the software ready when testing, because they said when they announced it the touchscreens display would be overlayed onto the game to avoid THAT EXACT ISSUE. Just because some people are too stupid to understand how something like that was necessary to make a proper pc controller doesn't mean we all are.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Yes a touchpad/screen is horrible for a quick responsive interface in games. I only use the screen in 3DS games for menus and non-time-critical things. A really good controller should have plenty of face buttons, shoulder triggers AND some that can be pressed by middle, ring and pinky finger. It should also have drivers for Windows OS X and Linux to let the user fully configure them they way they want if they don't like using buttons on either side, and if the shoulders are analog, they should be on separate axises so you can program then into games that otherwise would register simultaneous trigger presses as both being neutral. You reading this, Gabe?

Also, it would be nice if they made a corded version. The ones with USB charging ports don't count. You can buy USB extensions online for dirt cheap if you rather have a cord instead of feeding it batteries. I had to buy a cordless Logitech trackball because they discontinued the awesome corded version. Now I forget where I put it, my PS3, wiimotes and 360 controller sometimes.

 

[Infernal Lawyer]

Well, Valve tried something new, and it turns out that you have to leave some of the old in when reinventing the wheel. I guess the people who said the original looked dumb and wouldn't work were right XD Hmm, I wonder, if you were one of the lucky few who got to be in the Beta, do you have to send in the old controller back? Since they're scrapping it and all, plus the agreement WAS that Valve can callback the machines whenever they want.

 

[Vie]

Ok, I'm more interested now.

I'll admit it's a shame to loose the screen for the sake of the physical buttons - but those are probably going to be a lot more useful - and used.

That said, I'm still nowhere near convinced by the thumbpads - but as I've said before, I'll reserve judgement till I can actually try it out.

 

[Grabehn]

I wanted to try this, but I just don't get what's with the "let's put buttons on the front" I can't use a Dualshock because the sticks cramp my hands AND I have to move them between those and the buttons, why put more on the front when you have FOUR fingers on the back of the controller if you're not using the shoulder buttons. (of which two are more comfortable to use but still)

Wow, the fact that everyone in this thread is severely misinformed, including the writer of the article is saddening. Yes, it was a touchscreen. But it was never planned to be just a touchscreen. It said right on the official release that it was a touchscreen where each corner square was an actual button underneath the screen. Press down, and the screen button would click. You still had your buttons, but you'd have the ability to quickly swipe between what each of those 4 buttons did,which gave the ability for cool things like macro sets or 1-9 weapon sets in games you carry weapons Doom style. My interest has now gone from piqued to apathetic, good job general population, being too stupid to adjust to the future, as usual.

When I read about this, I thought that the trackpad was the one that had that "it's also buttons" thing, I didn't even know it had a touchscreen.

 

[Kahani]

Well, after receiving feedback from the controller's beta phase, it seems like the company has decided not to reinvent the wheel quite so much: the touchscreen is getting the axe

I wonder how much of this is due to actual beta feedback, and how much is simply from looking at the feedback the PS4 and WiiU controllers have had. It seems pretty clear that extra awkward bits in the middle of a controller that you can't use while holding it normally just isn't something people want.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Good on Valve, no point making a gamepad different just for the sake of it. If it doesnt work, then it doesnt work. From what i remember couldnt the whole pad be reprogrammed? Im guess everyone changed the buttons to what is more comfortable, and that is the PS/MS design of pad. Not a surprise, with had that standard layout since PS1.

People moaning because of the changes, thats the point of beta, of why they sent the pad out for people to try and give feed back on. Or do people expect Valve to keep a touchpad that the people said they didnt like it, after all, these are people that actually used it to play games. Also seems Valve agreed also.

 

[BloodRed Pixel]

I liked the first version better and it's possibilities. The new version looks like can keep my old 360 controller.

 

[AstaresPanda]

Looks alot better now, thou id still like to try one out to see how it is next to pc controls.

 

[Something Amyss]

yeah, fuck that now.

the only feature that made the controller interesting is out of the window.

I don't know, the primary point of interest I had was the dual track pads.

and 30 also includes a 3.

and we all know that number doesnt exist.

I think you may be on to something here.

GOG only does it on games that physically won't run on your computer and all their support options dont work.

And Steam doesn't even offer that. But aside from that, GOG is aware people can simply, you know....Lie.

EA's only works on EA games (I think)

And Steam doesn't even offer that, either.

So yeah it makes sense that Valve wouldn't offer it the same way...

Or at all.

I was complaining about that, but then i noticed it still has 8 buttons behind, so no, you dont really have to. You may have to do it in very complex games, but it will be the same as in the keyboard you cant obviously press more than 8 buttons without removing your hand from the WASD

I don't know, I can hit more than eight buttons with just my pinky and thumb. Besides, the left hand only accounts for four of the buttons.

Sure, because failing to deliver virtually free games for 30 days to the biggest and most uncontrollable hub of gamers in the world risking your entire operation when you already have the cheapest prices on the market is a horrible failure.

Let's go easy on the strawman, dude. What did he ever do to you?

Steam really only has the best prices if you take their sale prices and ignore the sale prices of other sites or the depreciation of retail games. People would get better deals if they shopped competitively rather than just assumign Steam was the best because ponies.

30 days refund is just a drop in a sea of EA bullshits (they do it just to avoid expensive lawsuits), and GOG kindness, god bless GOG.

EA's not doing it for fear of expensive lawsuits. Their terms already protected them like Valve.

The point being, the good and altruistic Valve doesn't really care about customer support. Or the customer, really.

So no big deal, at least for me, ive never ever in my life had to ask for the refund of a game anyway

The "it's never happened to me, so it's okay" routine. Fine. You've never had a game fail to work, so that justifies no returns policy. Meanwhile, EA will refund games if you're unsatisfied (not even defective), a much bigger risk given they're EA games.

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

GOG only does it on games that physically won't run on your computer and all their support options dont work.

And Steam doesn't even offer that. But aside from that, GOG is aware people can simply, you know....Lie.[/quote]

As a note, not true. Steam do refund games that do not work, that do not run or (games like War Z) games that lie about what they are or what they offer.

The thing is, when you buy a game on steam, say, Metro 2033. That game is I don't know how much, but it can defiantly be completed within 30 days. You then finish and go, "Well, that was a fun game but I am done now." You look at the refunds and see if it is bought and you request a refund within 30 days, you get it!

So, you refund Metro. Then you go and play some Walking Dead. Then refund it. Then you play some Skyrim and refund it.

Hell, you play some Spelunky, and refund it. Then you buy it again. And refund it.

Any gains made by the system would quickly be lost. For example - people will exploit it, and so Steam will stop it. They might even make it so each request has to be viewed individually and then you might as well just use the system they have now. As cute as the idea of being able to trade back something that isn't a real object, but rather data, it just won't work.

 

[laggyteabag]

The middle of the controller looks so boring now, i dont really see why they cant just implement the touch screen anyway, it looks like there is a decent amount of room for it.

 

[Sight Unseen]

GOG only does it on games that physically won't run on your computer and all their support options dont work.

And Steam doesn't even offer that. But aside from that, GOG is aware people can simply, you know....Lie.

As a note, not true. Steam do refund games that do not work, that do not run or (games like War Z) games that lie about what they are or what they offer.

The thing is, when you buy a game on steam, say, Metro 2033. That game is I don't know how much, but it can defiantly be completed within 30 days. You then finish and go, "Well, that was a fun game but I am done now." You look at the refunds and see if it is bought and you request a refund within 30 days, you get it!

So, you refund Metro. Then you go and play some Walking Dead. Then refund it. Then you play some Skyrim and refund it.

Hell, you play some Spelunky, and refund it. Then you buy it again. And refund it.

Any gains made by the system would quickly be lost. For example - people will exploit it, and so Steam will stop it. They might even make it so each request has to be viewed individually and then you might as well just use the system they have now. As cute as the idea of being able to trade back something that isn't a real object, but rather data, it just won't work.

Your quote broke and ended up quoting me instead of the person who quoted me. But I agree with you

 

[Signa]

So we're going with the SNES button layout yet again? Oh well, you know how gamers are:


But seriously, this looks lame. This controller was clearly designed so the thumb is on the track pad most of the time. Shouldn't we lay out the buttons so that they're most easily accessable from that position? Something more like this:

That's my biggest gripe about this too. I played Okami on the Wii, and the controls never got in the way because I got used to the completely different layout of the Wii controller on a conventional game. I got so used to it in fact, that I had a hard time playing a few other games because I kept lashing out with the motion waggle without thinking about it, even though the game didn't use that feature.

Returning to the tired and true form just tells me that gamers in general have no adaptability.

 

[Dire Trout]

I'm okay with this. All those buttons and the touchscreen between the trackpads just looked like they'd be awkward as hell to use. Touchscreens shouldn't be on controllers anyway--you need to be able to use them without having to look down at them to see which parts of the screen do what. So yeah, now they just have to convince me that the trackpads work as well as analog sticks, and I'll have no reason not to spring for the iBuyPower Steam Box.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

Moving the face buttons to a particular side was absolutely necessary; there's no way a game like Batman: Arkham Asylum would be playable with the setup they had before, even if you tried to build it from the ground up specifically for that controller. I look forward to seeing what they have planned to replace the touchscreen.

Wow, the fact that everyone in this thread is severely misinformed, including the writer of the article is saddening. Yes, it was a touchscreen. But it was never planned to be just a touchscreen. It said right on the official release that it was a touchscreen where each corner square was an actual button underneath the screen. Press down, and the screen button would click. You still had your buttons, but you'd have the ability to quickly swipe between what each of those 4 buttons did,which gave the ability for cool things like macro sets or 1-9 weapon sets in games you carry weapons Doom style. My interest has now gone from piqued to apathetic, good job general population, being too stupid to adjust to the future, as usual.

Ironic that you'd complain about being misinformed, because Valve isn't ditching the touchpad at all [http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/15/5312452/steam-controller-ditches-the-touchscreen-for-better-backwards], just the built-in screen on it. That picture is just a mockup of where the face buttons might go. Basically, it sounds like they're migrating to something more like the Macbook-style clickpad that the PS4 has.

 

[ShakerSilver]

This is awfully familiar...

Spoiler

Still, it looks an awful lot better than that weird touchscreen they had in the center.

 

[PMAvers]

Surprised there hasn't been a article talking about VOGL yet, which came up in the conference.

Basically it's some tech Valve came up that translates DX11 code to OpenGL code at the source level, granting the benefits of DX11 without being tied to a platform.

 

[shintakie10]

GOG only does it on games that physically won't run on your computer and all their support options dont work.

And Steam doesn't even offer that. But aside from that, GOG is aware people can simply, you know....Lie.

As a note, not true. Steam do refund games that do not work, that do not run or (games like War Z) games that lie about what they are or what they offer.

The thing is, when you buy a game on steam, say, Metro 2033. That game is I don't know how much, but it can defiantly be completed within 30 days. You then finish and go, "Well, that was a fun game but I am done now." You look at the refunds and see if it is bought and you request a refund within 30 days, you get it!

So, you refund Metro. Then you go and play some Walking Dead. Then refund it. Then you play some Skyrim and refund it.

Hell, you play some Spelunky, and refund it. Then you buy it again. And refund it.

Any gains made by the system would quickly be lost. For example - people will exploit it, and so Steam will stop it. They might even make it so each request has to be viewed individually and then you might as well just use the system they have now. As cute as the idea of being able to trade back something that isn't a real object, but rather data, it just won't work.[/quote]

So your argument is that Valve is so incredibly stupid that they wouldn't have any sort of system that would go "Huh, this guy has bought, played, then asked for a refund every game he's played for the last month. Maybe he's tryin to scam us?" That's just...I dont even know how to respond.

Even if Valve is so incompetent that they wouldn't be able to detect fraud like that, so what? This community has talked over and over again about how you shouldn't punish legitimate customers simply because some people take advantage of you. This is that exact situation. The fact that Valve has literally 0 return policy outside of when there's enough public outcry to shed a light on the fact that they don't give a fuck about customers is still incredibly insulting.

I can return literally anythin I have ever bought from Amazon. Literally anythin. Video games included with absolutely 0 questions asked. It could be I played it and finished it and didn't intend to play it again. It could be because it was a buggy piece of shit that didn't work. It could be because it wasn't what I thought it was goin to be. Doesn't matter one bit, they will refund me my money and many times throw in a 5 dollar credit towards a future purchase. They'll cut you off if its incredibly obvious you're just scammin them, but other than that it's all fair game. Do they lose a small amount of money from people bein dicks and abusin the system? Absolutely, but the good will it generates is far more important than bein a dick to your customers like Valve does. On top of that, Amazon is generally cheaper than Steam anyway, so thats always a bonus.

There is no good reason why Valve can't have a return policy when all their competition has one.

On topic of the controller!

I'm glad they got rid of the touchscreen idea and gave me some buttons to work with. The weird trackpads will only work for me because there's supposed to be tactile feedback so I know exactly what I'm pressin and when. With touchscreens I'm just not good enough with them to be able to use it naturally.

Wonder when we'll actually be able to see this thing in action...