Not going to lie I kind of wish they had kept the Dead Space that the screen created. I feel like it's not going to be as comfortable with everything just shoved in tight like that I actually really really like the spacing that the screen on the steam deck provides
Tbh, that's the first time I heard that take. With the openness of the deck I'm sure you could somehow just use a deck as the controller though.
With a smart TV it should already "just work"... Just get the steam link app for your TV and pair it to your deck to play on the TV and use the deck as a wireless controller. Don't know if you can turn off the deck's screen though.
I mean why change what's already great. Works on the Deck, would be just as great as a controller, if not better since it can be used with anything, not just the Deck.
All I can see is a controller who looks really surprised by whatever it sees in the lower right corner of the screen.
Seriously though, my gut reaction is that this looks worse than the old Steam controller for track pads. I hope it's more comfortable than the Steam Deck.
The more I look at it, the better it seems...
The touchpads allow for a very versatile way of controlling games, so called 'pc only games' at points become easier to play on controllers than with a keyboard thanks to it
Agreed. I'm not sure how exactly it would work, but I feel like the analog sticks and touchpads should be switched somehow.
I really wish brick and mortar stores would have displays of controllers to try out like they do with laptops and phones, but I'm not sure the money is there. Most people just go with whatever the standard xbox or playstation controller is and call it good enough.
The main goal of deckard is more of a Virtual theater screen steam deck. It can also play VR games, but streaming(or playing locally) your flat games to your comfortable recliner is what it does best. The 4 face buttons are hugely important for that. As for the index control, there are so few examples of good ways to use the touch pads, and other headsets are doing full handtracking while holding the controllers completely visually now. So no need for expensive hardware built into the controller anymore, grip and trigger at perfect fidelity and the other fingers at hand tracking fidelity is more than enough. Hand tracking fidelity constantly improves with software updates, too.
If this gets deckard down to a price people are willing to pay, good for all of us, even those of us that would choose to pay more, and odds are there might be a more expensive option too anyway. Maybe even the ability to just use index controls if you got them.
I just want a reasonably priced generational bump over the Index. Most PCVR headsets that have pancake lenses are either obscenely priced, are ridiculously heavy, or have reportedly terrible QA. From what I've seen lately, usually all three are true.
You can get close in features and price with something like a Pico or a Quest, but they lack direct DisplayPort connection, so it's compressed wireless PCVR, compressed "wired" PCVR (which basically uses a networking protocol anyway), or no PCVR at all.
Myself, and I'm sure a ton of other people, are hoping for the Deckard to be "huge" for the PCVR market, just like the Index was when it released. Maybe we're all coping, and we probably even are, but I think a lot of people are generally unhappy with the state of the PCVR hardware market right now.
So all this is to say... I really hope this thing is much better than a glorified flat screen projector.
I was excited for Valve to come out with something that pushed vr forward, but if it's just a budget apple vision for gaming, I have zero interest. At that point, why not just use the regular steam controller 2?