GoKawiilis an editor covering deals and gaming hardware. He joined in 2018, and after a two-year stint at Polygon, he rejoined The Verge in May 2025.
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 when you press a button or touch a trackpad, revealing an array of custom commands — weapons, spells, consumables, you name it.
That’s why the idea of a new physical Steam Controller doesn’t hit the same way it used to. But Valve nevertheless improved upon its misunderstood predecessor with a 2026 model that has features you can’t find anywhere else. Basically, it crams the Steam Deck’s huge suite of inputs into a single gamepad, including those twin touchpads. It’s a Steam Deck without a screen, plus a little bit more.
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1 / 5 In Bluetooth mode connected to the Deck, you still have access to all of the Steam Controller’s unique inputs. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
I appreciate the small hardware refinements over the Steam Deck. For instance, the new Steam Controller has drift-resistant TMR joysticks that shouldn’t degrade over time — something Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have yet to offer. I find it has better ergonomics than the Deck, four rear buttons that are easier to press, and unique touch-sensitive sensors embedded in the sticks and grips that can be mapped to any input. It is ridiculously customizable, and it’ll be user-repairable, too, with replacement parts eventually hitting iFixit’s shop.
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