Imagine Steve Ballmer working at Apple and arguing the that iPad needs more buttons. This is similar to the direction Value has gone with the Steambox Controller. Started impressive and innovative, now they're pushing in the buttons. CRAZY.
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They needed an input device that could replace a mouse/keyboard combination. The touchpads were meant to do exactly that.
Turns out they also need an input device that can replace a gamepad. So buttons it is.
The touchscreen wasn't innovative, it was a gimmick. Little screens on gamepads have been done before (dreamcast, anyone?), and they never worked out. If you need to pass information to the player, use a HUD.
But you can partition the touchscreen to emulate buttons, right? Nope. Only in theory. The touchscreen has no tactile feedback. If you think you can consistently hit a 5mm sized button without feeling where it is, you're wrong. Unlike a phone or tablet, you're not looking at the controller, you're looking at your TV. To support all the existing games with gamepad support, you need a proper gamepad, not a touchscreen gimmick.
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Originally posted by Maxjen View PostButtons will be a lot better if you're playing games using oculus rift because you won't be able to look at the touchscreen.
Think outside the square. We don't need buttons when we have sense-pads, not to mention there is already buttons that surrounded the corners of the LCD in the original design.
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Originally posted by e8hffff View PostThe LCD also playing into the course of heads-up at the player's hand. Similar to WiiU controller (yeah I know it wasn't popular a console.) LCD's are dirt cheap at the size originally shown.
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Originally posted by bnolsen View PostA reason the WiiU isn't popular is because of the split viewing having to yank your head back and forth between the big screen and something sitting in your lap. It's really not as useful a paradigm as people might think. As I mentioned earlier there's already 2 touchpads on the controller. Why do you really need a 3rd?
My perspective is that you use the LCD to select controller configurations, and maybe could be used for game interaction if a Game-Developer could make it innovative.
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Originally posted by e8hffff View PostThe point I'm making is that you can simulate buttons with the sense-pads. The touch screen, even though usable and interactive, I wouldn't be expecting games to use it for action buttons in games.
However, I think that in most of the time games will want discrete actions that don't flow into each other and there real buttons just feel better.
Originally posted by e8hffff View PostThink outside the square. We don't need buttons when we have sense-pads, not to mention there is already buttons that surrounded the corners of the LCD in the original design.
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It's hard for us to compare without actually having both controllers in our hands, but I can see the reasoning behind this move. The problem with a touchscreen is that you have to look at it before being able to make the correct click, whereas with hardware buttons you can do that quickly while staring at the TV. I highly doubt the change is to cut costs. The cost of a tiny LCD that is probably not even colored is really low.
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