Phoronix article: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Steam-Machines-Frame-2026
Also listed here: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/hardware
Valve has already sent support for the new Steam Controller upstream: https://www.phoronix.com/news/New-Steam-Controller-SDL
I feel like if I use this controller those trackpads will go crazy because of my fat hands.
The Steam Deck uses the capacitive thumb stick sensors to completely disable the trackpads as soon as the stick above the respective pad is touched. This works very well, so I think they‘ll implement the same thing here.
That’s so fucking cool
On the opposite of the spectrum, my small hands doesn't play well with that feature. The capacitive sensors only works if your fingers touch the top of the sticks but I usually move the sticks by pushing on the round edges of it so I still occasionally brush against the touch pads which is annoying.
You should be able to disable them on a game by game basis if needed. Annoying thiugh
That brings up my following question.
If the thumb sticks are capacitive and they wear smooth over time how do you replace them? Are the capacitive sensors under stick caps? Do you just have to replace the rim only?
Does your capacitive phone screen wear smooth over time?
(The point being hopefully they'll be made of something that doesn't wear down from human fingies)
The case around it does. That's what I want to replace.
I assume the same way the steam deck gets replacement sticks. You'd replace the entire thumb cap and run a wire under and to a specific connector. So its unlikely you'll get a third party solution with capacitive touch but getting official parts shouldn't be impossible either, just more tedious.
I've not had any wear like that on my deck, but I'm not crazy hard on controllers. At worse the whole stick can be pretty easily replaced. The repairability on Valve hardware gets a high priority.
Steam did an amazing job on the controller management, you can already remap everything. Disabling track pads should be easy
Almost everything. I've got this weird issue where my controller gets misrecognised as the wrong type, and there's simply no way for me to force steam to recategorise it.
I'm just glad they have dual thumbsticks now. I bought their last model on sale but quickly shelved it. Couldn't get used to the touchpads and didn't want to spend the next 2 months sucking at every game I played.
"The hands you have used to game are too fat. To obtain a special gaming wand, please mash the controller with your palm now"
You would need REALLY massive hands to touch those when your thumbs are resting on the analog sticks or the face buttons.