this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2025
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Please let it be good for replacing a mouse and also halfway affordable!
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If it's like the pads on the Steam Deck (and it looks like they are), they are a great replacement for mouse.
What do you have in mind? I think the trackpads are already doing a fine job in situation where speed isn't important like fiddling in menus / GUIs, turn-based games or point & clicks.
My use case is playing games like We Are Football 2024, the Football Manager games and others where a regular controller isn't precise enough from the couch, since I use my TV as a monitor and how low my coffee table is makes using a mouse awkward and ergonomically awful lol
Steam Input can be used to turn your joystick on your existing pad into a mouse. You could add a button for a speed modifier.
It won’t be perfect or good for precision mouse stuff but it’ll unlock a lot of games for couch gameplay with your existing setup.
See, the problem is that the precision is essential.
Have you tried playing We Are Football with an otherwise excellent controller with hall effect sticks and everything, with the Steam input settings on the most mouselike possible?
It's like trying to type with winter gloves on: possible to do if absolutely necessary, but it's going to be a very slow and frustrating experience with a lot of missing.
On an unrelated topic, I used to work with someone who could type just fine with winter gloves on. She would do this all thentime because the office was so cold.
Sadly not, first time I’ve heard of it.
I’m still rocking my OG Steam Controller so I still use that for anything mouse-related on the couch.
What about a trackball mouse?
Would still need to be on a flat surface, so the poor ergonomics problem would still persist
Why do you worry about affordability? Valves hardware has always been affordable. I would be very surprised if the controller costs more than $80
Because I'm poor, currently spending a lot on my weight loss/general health improvement project, and already having a great controller for games with regular controller support (Razer Wolverine V3 Pro) makes it harder for me to justify spending a lot on one only for games that would otherwise require a mouse 😁
I hear you but the previous steam controller was also only $60 like regular controllers. And Valve typically don’t have good margins on hardware, so it would surprise me if SC2 was suddenly super expensive. I could always be wrong, I mean it’s not like Valve have released a lot of hardware so the sample size is very smol.
Even cheaper when they were selling the Steam Link at discount, I think it was $30 for the link and controller? I dont remember. I bought one, barely used the link, just used the controller.
Argh the Steam Link is the one piece of valve hardware I regret not getting, though it’s basically been entirely outclassed by the Steam Deck
I still have 2 of them that I still use on occasion.
I think the price depends on which market they are going for. The Switch converts who want to dock a deck to their TV, or the Xbox Elite, high end precision "best of the best" hardware crowd.
Well, affordable for the high quality they deliver, but not as competitively priced as some cheaper crap on the market. Yeah you get what you pay for, but you do have to expect to pay premium prices to Valve (for equally premium devices).
Because I live in a country whose goverment is shitting on the economy and where Valve will never sell their hardware themselves so I am stuck with scalpers and resellers, the original steam controller was sold at triple its normal price at best.
I loved the og one so if this isn't affordable... Well I am fucked.
With inflation and companies jacking prices up for no reason I would be extremely surprised if the controller came in under $120 USD