Valve's Steam Controller looks less revolutionary with every redesign
And we reacted with confusion. "Bizarre," we said, "but I guess I'll give it a shot." Then some of us gave it a shot and were all, "Well, I guess it's okay. I just don't think I'd ever use one instead of an Xbox 360 controller."
Valve apparently heard us, first adding two diamonds of buttons onto the controller, similar to a D-Pad and the ABXY block we're all familiar with. Then they added a damn analog stick instead of the D-pad. Now, if a recent image discovered by ValveTime is any indication the D-pad idea is back in the form of four cardinal lines on the left touchpad.
All of which begs the question, "Why the hell does this thing even exist" If Valve's just going to make its own Xbox/PlayStation style controller (and it's appearing more that way with every subsequent iteration), then why even bother
It has to be even more frustrating to PC makers, which were forced to delay the launch of their Steam Machines because Valve's one piece (the controller) wasn't ready yet. Some have managed to ameliorate those sunk costs somewhat by selling the box as a living room-ready Windows machines--Alienware's nifty Alpha console, for instance. But most of those boxes shown at CES last January still haven't seen the light of day, and with the rapid progression of gaming hardware most are already obsolete.
Which brings us all to the central question: Do we ever see Steam Machines Do we see a consumer launch of SteamOS Do we see the Steam Controller as a real retail product I assume we'll have those questions answered by the end of 2015. At least, I hope we will--after all, there's always a chance the whole project falls into the same time void as Half-Life 3.