I would love to get ahold of one for my PC. I'm hesitant to buy a used one though. Maybe one day Valve will make more or even better, make a SC2. Until then my PS5 controller will continue to serve me well

this thing looks like an abomination to mankind

Mine hasn't gotten much use lately because the steamdeck itself has indirectly usurped it but man I love my steam controller. It's genuinely the best controller ever made for certain types of games. I find it very difficult to play FPS games without it (or the steamdeck) due to getting so used to gyro aiming with the capacitive touch sensors. My only real gripe with it is the subpar build quality. They've learned a lot since then in terms of hardware manufacturing so I can't wait for them to put out a new steam controller.

I didn’t like it. I got it on sale and tried it. I just have muscle memory for Xbox style controllers and that didn’t give me any advantages that made it worth retraining.

I have mine, I used it a few times, I did not care for it. I can't stand using a touchpad in place of physical sticks. I found it to be worse than a mouse for mouse needs and worse than a standard controller for controller needs. All just felt a bit gimmicky.

It was a neat idea, but just didn’t work as well as a traditional set up. Seemed more like a prototype than a full retail product.

I wanted to like this thing so bad. I tried it so many times I just cannot get used to the trackpad for anything beyond top down environment or platformers. Once I need a second joystick as an input it was game over.

I don't think the idea was mature enough. Yes it did try to innovate and do new things but it also was trying very hard to be familiar to an audience that was never going to embrace change while not changing enough for a new audience to develop around it. I would compare it to the Dvorak keyboard, a device that offered only marginal improved efficiency and use while requiring the user to completely relearn from the ground up and have to fight muscle memory for those who used the popular medium it meant to replace. And in the end, most people said it wasn't worth it.

I was initially intrigued by having buttons on the bottom of the controller, where your fingers naturally would be thus freeing your thumbs to stay on the pad/sticks. And imagine my frustration to realize those rear buttons are just extensions of triggers already on top. Huge missed opportunity imo that a redesign could have given dedicated buttons on the back of the controller to each finger and expand the possibilities for input combos a player can perform.

TL;DR I think the controller was a valiant effort to innovate but didn't go far enough or do anything sell enough to stick.

The difference is that the Steam Deck actually uses fairly traditional controls. Two joysticks, face buttons, d-pad (not that anyone uses the d-pad), multiple back triggers.

This thing was been really weird with its three analogue inputs (how am I supposed to use three analogue inputs) and every other button was limited. It also existed in a world where I can just get an Xbox controller and plug it into my PC, and it just works, so what's the point anyway?

This thing isn't even particularly good at controlling the steam deck, which kind of proves the point that it never really made sense as a product.

I love mine. Don't use it for much, but still love it

The entire industry has agreed on a de-facto standard for controllers, which is pretty much the PS1 controller:

• Two clickable thumbsticks
• Four face buttons
• D-pad
• Four triggers
• Two menu buttons
• The only thing the PS1 didn't have (but games can't use it, so maybe it doesn't count?) - a button for showing the platform's menu

You can add things on top of that (trackpads, gyros, making some of these digital buttons analog), but if you don't have that - your controller won't work for games that expect these inputs to be available.

If I had to put a date on when this became the established standard, I'd say 2005 or 2006 - the years when the XBox 360 and the PS3 were released, since both consoles had these capabilities (Nintendo kept doing its own thing, and only supported this standard starting with the Wii U). So when the Steam controller was released in 2015 - this standard was already established, controllers for PC made sure to support it - and even PC games stuck to it.

This is why I think the Steam Controller failed - you had to map it. You couldn't use it like you would a standard controller even if the game was made for standard controllers.

Well I'm glad someone likes it

I always wanted one, but by the time I had the personal economy to buy one they weren't available any more.