Why the Steam Controller is (and isn’t) a big deal

April 27, 2026 Cameron Faulkner

It’s not reductive to call it a Steam Deck without the screen. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Most PC gamers already have a controller they love using with Steam - a Sony DualSense, a 8BitDo Ultimate, a Nintendo Switch Pro, or something else. Part of that love comes from Steam treating them like "native" controllers. They can do the things that made the first Steam Controller worth buying. Namely, they offer a level of customizable control never before seen on PC and that you still can't get on a console.

With Steam Input, any of those controllers can have multiple control schemes for different game scenarios (flight, on-foot, in menus), and you swap between them with a button press. You can also create onscreen menus that bloom whe …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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