If you’ve been following the news surrounding the Steam machine and everything else Valve is doing right now, you may have come across updates on the new Steam controller this week, which retails for a hefty £85/99 and will be on sale from 4th May.
Of course, this isn’t a console controller – it’s made for PC, and will be compatible with the Steam Machine. In fact, we already know it won’t work with consoles at allbut that doesn’t mean it’s not worth comparing to the Xbox controller, which is already a popular tool for playing games on PC.
Critics are well aware of this, and have been making a lot of comparisons between the two, so we thought we’d share a bit of what we found out about the Steam and Xbox controllers below:
Digital Foundry: “Instead of focusing on console features or even compatibility, the new Steam controller feels like a real controller for the first group of PC gamers who use Steam as their main means of gaming. For those who especially want a pad for console-standard style games, the Xbox controller remains a safe and compelling choice, backed by years of dedicated Steam controller memory and able to integrate with dedicated OS memory. And it requires a short time to get used to.”
Polygon: “Any concerns you have about comfort may disappear once you pick it up. The Steam Controller may be the most natural-fitting controller I’ve ever owned. It makes my Xbox Wireless Controller feel like a solid brick in my hands.”
Tom’s hardware: “That said, a Steam controller only makes sense if you do all (or at least most) of your gaming on Steam. If you play elsewhere, an Xbox, PlayStation, or Switch Pro controller is cheap and can work on both Steam and your console of choice. The PS5 controller even has a gyro.”
Eurogamer: ” [The thumbsticks are] I’m close, sitting so far back on the already chunky controller that it forces me to stretch my thumbs beyond their natural resting point just to reach them, let alone push them. And when I’m moving, my thumbs are often close enough to bump into each other. It’s not a disaster, but I got it just awkward enough that, increasingly, I’ve been unconsciously reaching for the Xbox pad when settling in for long sessions with a game designed for a traditional controller.”
Ars Technica: “Overall, we’ve really enjoyed our time so far with the Steam Controller. It’s a solidly built device with some great extra features that make it stand out in a sea of very similar controllers on the market. However, for most gamers, those features won’t be enough to justify the $99 price tag. It’s really hard to justify spending a lot of money in the Xbox market for a high-quality controller when a Bluetooth controller can easily be found for half the price or less.”
Thanks to Tom’s Hardware, here’s a look at the Steam controller next to the Xbox controller as well:
Interestingly, we’ve seen a few critics mention that they’ve had difficulty getting their Xbox PC and PC Game Pass titles to work with the Steam Controller, with PC Mag going into detail about this in particular:
“During testing, the biggest problem I encountered was the Xbox app, the home of Xbox Game Pass on PC. I couldn’t add game binaries installed via Xbox to my Windows 11 test PC; the Xbox app said I don’t have permission, even as an administrator. Windows 11 closes the Xbox app and any games installed on it at the system level, so Steam can’t register them. That means, it won’t work with Steam Game Control. That means you won’t work with Steam Game Pass. The upcoming Forza Horizon 6, you have to buy it through Steam, not Xbox.”
Despite how disappointing this may sound, people have been pointing out ways to get Xbox games for PC to work with the Steam Controller, as previous incarnations of Valve’s controller had the same limitation before workarounds like GlossSI were created. In other words, it shouldn’t be a dealbreaker.
Overall, the Steam Controller review seems pretty impressive so far, and we’re interested in taking it for a spin when we get the chance. That said, without native Xbox console support, it’s a hard sell for Xbox fans specifically – we can always use our Xbox controllers to play on PC, so unless indeed you’re interested in some of its unique features (like touch pads) or planning to get a Steam machine (which might include one in the box anyway), you might want to hold off for now.
We will leave it to you! Let us know what you think of the new Steam controller in the comments.