Valve patents new Steam Controller with components that can be swapped

[Andytizer 274]

Valve appear to be working on a new Steam Controller, as patent document "Handheld Controllers With Touch-Sensitive Controls" appears on the internet. This is surprising considering that Valve discontinued the old Steam Controller in November 2019.

The new controller appears to show that the analogue stick can be swapped with different components, such as a d-pad. The patent states, "FIG1 is a front view of an example handheld controller that includes, in part, a receiver that is configured to detachably couple to different controls, such as a joystick, directional pad (D-pad), and the like."

It's possible that a v2 version of the Steam Controller may be actively worked on for a future release by Valve.

[Antrad 42]

How can they patent this. There is a famous Internet joke called Smach Z (short for Steam Machine Zero) that had this in their indiegogo campaign in 2016. They called it Z-pad.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/smach-z-the-handheld-gaming-pc#/

https://c1.iggcdn.com/indiegogo-media-prod-cld/image/upload/c_limit,w_695/v1479558248/n4dqh35q34vz8b15x0lm.png

[hidxpress123 0]

i hope the SC2 get's made, or at least allow third party to create a sc clone. i dread the day my SC and the backup SC i ordered during the $5 sale both die :(