TL;DR Valve just released a new version of its Steam Controller earlier this month.
New owners are discovering that the controller lets out a scream when dropped from high enough.
The scream is recognizable as the classic “Wilhelm scream” from movies and TV.
Video games are lousy with Easter eggs. From the early days of Adventure on the VCS (or Atari 2600 to most of you), game developers have been packing their releases with hidden secrets only accessible to gamers who have worked out (or, more likely, been told by their friends) the trick to unlocking them. We’ve even seen a few Easter eggs in video game controllers over the years, like the hidden message in the Switch Pro Controller, or the PS5’s DualSense textured finish being made up of microscopic triangles, circles, crosses, and squares. But now this latest one might just take the cake as the coolest we’ve seen yet.
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Valve is in the middle of a big new hardware push, and the first release there has been the redesigned Steam Controller. The new gamepad takes heavy inspiration from the controls on the Steam Deck, and we’ve already seen some slick accessories announced for it, like that handy Basegrip mount.
As more and more gamers get their hands on the new Steam Controller, it was just a matter of time before someone spotted its surprising hidden Easter egg: the controller screams.
Specifically, it lets out a Wilhelm scream when dropped from sufficient height, a classic movie sound effect that you’ve no doubt heard dozens, if not hundreds of times over the years.
Reddit user RF3D19 spotted and help spread word of the find earlier this week. Initially, it looked like making the controller scream required being in Steam’s Big Picture Mode, but it’s since been confirmed that this is not a prerequisite.
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