Steam Controller took “easily hundreds” of attempts to get its layout right, but did Valve nail it?

The Steam Controller was first envisioned almost as soon as the Steam Deck landed, and, according to Valve product designers Lawrence Yang and Steve Cardinali, those early stages of its development involved “easily hundreds” of initial prototypes. Wanting to create a product that harnessed the brilliance of the dual-trackpad controller design of the Steam Deck, the team set to work finding the perfect accompaniment to its handheld that would allow the Steam Deck’s full functionality to be used while docked, while unlocking a new way of interacting with your gaming PC. Speaking to PCGamesN in the run-up to the Steam Controller launch, Yang and Cardinali spoke at length about how a small team of just four Valve employees started work on the Steam Controller back in early 2023, and how those early stages were all about ultra-rapid iteration with designs worked on “multiple times a day.” Using in-house 3D printing, the team worked through hundreds of different static layout options before focusing in on the design I tested in my Steam Controller review.

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