In addition, games like first-person shooters that are designed around precise aiming within a large visual field now benefit from the trackpadsвЂ™ high resolution and absolute position control. Whole genres of games that were previously only playable with a keyboard and mouse are now accessible from the sofa. ThereвЂ™s no way to know what that means without taking this thing for a spin, but Valve goes on to make bold claims about the sensory fidelity: In theory, given my distaste for touch interfaces when it comes to fine motor control in a game, putting touchpads underneath your thumbs seems like a bad idea, say youвЂ™re playing something like Half-Life 2 or Counter-Strike,В where you have to be painstakingly precise.В But ValveвЂ™s claiming the resolution here is comparable to that of a desktop mouse. So we spent a year experimenting with new approaches to input and we now believe weвЂ™ve arrived at something worth sharing and testing with you. We realized early on that our goals required a new kind of input technology - one that could bridge the gap from the desk to the living room without compromises. Still, in all my time investigating haptic technology - and IвЂ™ve seen all kinds of stuff - IвЂ™ve never encountered a gaming input that looked quite like this: dual, circle-shaped, вЂњhigh resolutionвЂќ and clickable trackpads with concentric embossed inner circles, presumably вЂњguidesвЂќ to help your thumbs gauge where theyвЂ™re at in relation to what youвЂ™re doing onscreen.В On the announcement page, Valve says it considered input to be its вЂњbiggest missing link,вЂќ writing:

Indeed it would be, though itвЂ™s perhaps not entirely new for those of you who remember what it was like to play Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo DS, using the bottom halfвЂ™s trackpad in lieu of a thumbstick to maneuver Mario around that gameвЂ™s full-3D environs. Valve describes it as вЂњA new way to play your entire Steam library from the sofa.вЂќ Not just any controller, mind you, but a 16-button, beveled, ebony boomerang-like gamepad that looks (and sounds) a little like the lovechild of a PS Vita and Nintendo DS, where the left and right spaces youвЂ™d normally spy thumbsticks have been supplanted by circular trackpads. Follow third shoe in ValveвЂ™s weeklong announcement trifecta, ladies and gentlemen, isnвЂ™t as IвЂ™d guessed and hoped - a lineup of triple-A Linux game developers - but itвЂ™s definitely intriguing: a Steam Controller.

Steam controller