Today at GDC, Valve displayed an image of the final design of the Steam controller on a large poster. The so called, 8 way NeoGeo CD micro-switched joystick, is just an analogue joystick. The left track pad appears to have grooves on it to tell your thumb where north, south, east and west are. Apart from that, it remains pretty close to the previous design that sported a dpad rather than an analogue stick.

I’ll admit, I do prefer this design with a dpad. Even if it uses a PlayStation style dpad with a gap in the middle, it’s better than no dpad. Maybe the grooves on the final design make it really easy to find true up, down, left and right; but I thought the controller software allowed you to totally customise the track pads such as dead zones and positions. Continue reading →