After Steam Deck, Valve Wants Another Shot at the Steam Controller

ign.com:

Initially released in 2015, Valve's Steam Controller was discontinued after four years. But after the Steam Deck's recent success, it's likely that Valve might revive the controller in the near future.

In an interview with The Verge, Steam Deck designers Lawrence Yang and Pierre-Loup Griffais discussed the future of Valve's hardware. When asked about a possible second Steam Controller, Yang stated that the Valve team is hoping to make one. "Yeah, we want to make it happen," he said. "It's just a question of how and when."

However, it seems that Valve's attention is focused on the Steam Deck for now. “I think it’s likely that we’ll explore that because it’s something we wanted as well," Yang continued. "Right now, we’re focusing on the Deck, so it’s a little bit of the same thing as the microconsole question: it’s definitely something where we’d be excited to work with a third-party or explore ourselves."

We gave the original Steam Controller a 5.9 out of 10 in our 2015 review, saying that it provided "a mediocre gaming experience a majority of the time."

The recent Steam Deck has fared much better, earning a 7 in our review. It's been a big year for the Steam Deck as well — after launching in February this year, the company resolved supply chain issues and stopped requiring reservations, making the handheld PC a lot easier to get than it was at launch. According to Game Rant, as of October, Valve had sold over 1 million units.

Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN who loves all things indie and Nintendo. Outside of IGN, they've contributed to sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Shotgun. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.