Valve Replaces The Steam Machine Controller's Touchscreen for Physical Buttons

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Valve Replaces The Steam Machine Controller’s Touchscreen for Physical Buttons

January 16, 2014

Valve has announced, during its developer-only event Steam Dev Days in Seattle, that they’ll be replacing a touchscreen in lieu of actual physical buttons for the Steam Machine controller.

A blog post on Steam Database revealed the news. The post also confirmed that the controller will use two AA batteries and that Valve is “keeping VR in mind while developing the controller.” The controller will have a directional-pad and a standard ABXY button configuration that can be remapped.

These changes are most likely associated with the high cost that’s involved with developing a controller with a touchscreen. The physical buttons also remedy backwards compatibility issues.

Twitter user Leszek Godlewski posted a photo of the new layout for the controller.

Valve also announced that Steam has topped 75 million users, an increase from the 65 million in October. The Steam Machines will launch in September, with Alienware releasing the first iteration of the PC-inspired system.