The Steam Controller's main competition isn't from Microsoft or Sony: It's from third-party vendors

James Bentley, hardware writer

PC Gamer headshots (James Bentley) — (Image credit: Future)

This week I’ve been: Playing Luna Abyss and Zero Parades for Dead Spies, instead of stepping out into all the rain we’re getting this British Summer.

As strange as it is to say, I often feel like I’m forced to use the Xbox Controller whenever I turn on my Xbox (which is getting rarer and rarer nowadays anyway). It’s still a lovely feeling pad, but it genuinely feels like a downgrade when putting down the Victrix Pro BFG Reloaded, Gamesir G7 Pro 8K, or even EasySMX D10, which I usually have to hand for my PC.

I’ve come to the realisation that, even ignoring the fact that Sony and Microsoft’s standard controllers don’t have much protection against stick drift, I still wouldn’t pick them if I put them head to head against the rest of the controller market.

And yet, they still hog most of the conversation around controllers, and still regularly sit on Amazon’s best-selling list. Case in point, two different listings for the Xbox controller(1 and 2) both have Amazon added tags (“Overall Pick” and “Best Seller” as of time of writing), and these serve to place those controllers front and centre to potential buyers. But this preference isn’t only a thing on storefronts.

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I’m interested in the Steam Controller. I don’t really like its polling rate or membrane buttons, but its mouse input is neat, and it comes with drift-resistant sticks, which I’d argue should be almost mandatory for a controller now. But I noticed a common narrative came out during its launch: the belief that it’s better than Microsoft and Sony’s gamepads. While I think that’s debatable, I’m left wondering why we are forced to choose only one of those three.

One post went around a few weeks ago, which now has over one million views and over 8K likes as of the time of writing, that directly compares the Steam Controller to Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony’s offerings. It shows that Valve’s new controller has tonnes of features that none of the others do, and it justifies the price. It argues, “If your only argument against the Steam Controller is the price, you’re stupid.”

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Valve's new and improved Steam Controller during a visit to Valve's HQ in Bellevue, Washington. — (Image credit: Future)

And it’s easy to see why third-party controllers are often left out of these conversations. For one, as I noted at the start, Microsoft’s platform is a finicky beast that only allows controllers to work wirelessly if they use its tech. This is why the GameSir G7 Pro has Xbox wireless versions (like the ZZZ and Wuchang model), which are more expensive. Unlike PC, you can’t just grab any old wireless controller and get it working.

But the second, I think, is its history. Growing up, using a non-official controller often meant you were player two. It meant you had to deal with the jammy buttons, sticky bumpers, and weird thumbsticks. Third party meant cheap, both in cash and in feel. And I’m not convinced it has managed to shake that history. I do really like the EasySMX D10, but it being covered with RGB certainly doesn’t help it in that regard. The same is true of the D05, which has a flashy gold D-Pad and triggers.

Let’s look at raw specs. The Steam Controller for $100 gets you TMR analogue sticks, extra custom buttons, dual trackpads, dual-stage magnetic triggers, gyro support, and a 35-hour battery life with a charging dock. This does beat out the Xbox pad and Sony’s DualSense. But the EasySMX D10 gives you TMR sticks, a polling rate that is four times greater, linear Hall effect and non-linear micro switches, extra reprogrammable buttons, and (in my opinion) a nicer dock.

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The GameSir G7 Pro gamepad sitting in its charging dock — GameSir G7 Pro(Image credit: Future)

The GameSir G7 Pro offers everything the D10 has, but with a nicer feel and stronger build quality (and it’s $20 less than the Steam Controller). Raw stats would matter little if they didn’t have feel, but these controllers are great in that regard, too. These, and 8BitDo, all offer genuinely excellent-feeling controllers, equally matching the big dogs of the controller world.

This doesn’t immediately make them better than the Steam Controller, but instead makes each choice viable. And that’s what people miss when they overlook third-party controllers.

In the weeks since its launch, I’ve become more and more enamoured with the Steam Controller, and I may pick one up anyway, but that will be at least partially driven by what makes the controller unique, not what makes the controller unique when compared to a limited range.

I like its touchpads and gyro support. I think it seems genuinely pretty neat, and I like its ergonomics too. But its competition is wide, and only getting wider every day. And it especially makes sense to know what’s out there when you’re spending up to $100 on it. Still, the fact that the controller can sing is kinda cool.