Nearly five years after its discontinuation, the Steam Controller has a successor. And this time, it’s not Valve who’s behind it, but Japanese manufacturer Hori.
Do you remember the Steam Controller? Vestige of a time when Valve and its partners embarked on the (quickly interrupted) adventure of Steam Machines, the object was intended to be the ideal gaming companion for PC players. In practice, getting to grips with the device could prove laborious, with a fairly unpleasant learning curve. Even though Microsoft had already invented the perfect controller a few years earlier: that of the Xbox 360 (a completely subjective opinion, I agree).
Ultimately, the Steam owner abandoned the Steam Controller in November 2019, focusing instead on ever-increasing support for other brands’ products, and most importantly, on the development of a certain Steam Deck.
But here’s the thing: in 2024, PC gaming is far from being outdated. If Microsoft, Sony, and many others are capable of producing very, very good controllers, the Steam brand would have a place on one of them. At least, that’s what Valve seems to have thought, since Hori, the Japanese manufacturer behind several gaming-oriented peripherals like the Hori Split Pad Pro, will soon launch the Wireless Horipad for Steam.
A versatile and modern controller
Heavily inspired by the Horipad Pro designed for the Xbox Series S and Series X, the controller has the same configuration as Microsoft’s, with the Steam logo in place of the Xbox logo, and buttons corresponding to the menus of Valve’s platform. There are also four programmable buttons, which can be configured using Hori’s software, and motion sensors, like on Sony’s excellent DualSense. Finally, the device connects via Bluetooth or a USB-C cable.
We are far from the experimental splendor of the late Steam Controller. The Wireless Horipad for Steam is satisfied with the bare minimum in 2024, with some rather welcome additional options. It will be launched on October 31 in Japan in four colors (black, white, yellow and purple), for the modest sum of 7,890 yen, or nearly 50 euros. However, as reported by our colleagues from The Vergeno release has been announced outside of Hideo Kojima’s lands.
It remains to be seen whether this will ever happen, or whether Steam will launch a series of licensed peripherals, manufactured by various third-party manufacturers such as Razer or 8BitDo. In the meantime, you can surely find what you are looking for in our comparison of the best PC controllers in 2024, or else take out your good old Xbox 360 controller, THE unbeatable sure value.
