Steam Controller Goes Official on May 4 with $99 Price Tag

Valve has officially confirmed that its highly-anticipated Steam Controller will go on sale globally on May 4. It will be priced at $99 in the United States, €99 in European Union countries, £85 in the UK, $149 CAD in Canada, and $149 AUD in Australia, marking a truly global launch. Designed as a universal control device, the Steam Controller aims to be a versatile gamepad for the broader Steam ecosystem, supporting PCs, laptops, Steam Deck, Steam Machine, and even the Steam Frame VR headset. While maintaining familiar core controls, Valve is clearly focusing on additional inputs, including dual trackpads, a gyro, Grip Sense, and four rear grip buttons, all of which can be customized through Steam Input.

Interestingly, Valve has revealed more details about some of the core technology behind the Steam Controller, with perhaps the most intriguing being magnetic thumbsticks built around TMR technology. Valve claims they offer a better feel, improved responsiveness, and much greater durability. They also add capacitive touch support for motion-based controls, meaning your commands can now be expressed in multiple ways. There is also a new puck accessory that handles both wireless connectivity and charging, snapping onto the controller magnetically to serve as a dock and transmitter in one.

Update 17:00 UTC, May 4: Steam Controller is now officially available!

Lastly, Valve takes pride in having trackpads as one of the Steam Controller’s biggest differentiators. The company sees them as a practical replacement for mouse input in games designed around keyboard and mouse controls, especially in genres like shooters, puzzle games, and older PC titles. Valve claims their precision is high, but we will have to wait for third-party reviews and consumer testing to confirm this. Gyro support adds another layer of precision, while Grip Sense can be used to quickly enable or disable it on the fly. Valve also says the controller will ship with community-made configurations for thousands of games already loaded, giving players a ready-made starting point on day one. Expect to see many popular games receive their own Steam Controller configurations to provide the best pre-configured settings.