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Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license

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Re: Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license

#161

Post by AmbroseBierce »

cortesoft wrote: post #144
nananana9 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also nickel and dime the adults, but only the ones who make the games. It's fine though, because they're nice to players and they've brainwashed them into giving their money to Valve instead of to the developers who actually make the games they fucking play.

Developers choose to give Steam 30% of their revenue because they know the steam channel increases their revenue by more than 30%. Doesn't that make it a good deal for developers?

Attention span is finite and Steam took a big chunk of it from gamers, in other words there is a chance that in a world where everyone hated closed platforms like steam (for not allowing reselling or any other reason) direct ads would be more favorable for developers than steam, or word of mouth, or any of it's alternatives.

Re: Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license

#162

Post by goolz »

cortesoft wrote: post #152
iknowstuff wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s hard to participate in any gaming communities because you quickly realize they’re all kids who have no idea about markets but they all talk like foremost experts on every subject

This is not just gaming communities and it is not just kids. The number of adults who don't understand basic supply and demand is astonishing. Every discussion about Ticketmaster and/or scalpers is full of people who think if it wasn't for scalpers and ticketmaster, we could all go to every concert we want to for a reasonable price. It is the same thing with the tech community and the price of hard drives, RAM, and G…

Does Ticketmaster not amplify prices and use perceived scarcity to drive up prices? They can due that because Live Nation is a monopoly in all but name.

Re: Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license

#163

Post by efsavage »

j_maffe wrote: post #131
jvanderbot wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without steam, I'd still be playing my CD version of Homeworld 2. I have paid $10 for every $1 of game I play, perhaps as high as $100:$1. A 30% cut of that seems totally reasonable. I have hundreds of games I keep just in case, and have played 10s of games I'd never have considered because they dont appear in Game Informer, PC Gamer, GoG, Twitch, Youtube, or other channels. They just are magically brought to me by s…

Of course 30% seems reasonble to you, you're not the creator of the games. It's quite confusing to me that you're endorsing the side that has an insane ROI instead of the side that is sufferring greatly to make ends meet.

A 70% take would have blown the minds of developers pre-Steam. Retailers took 40% and were ruthless about shelf space and inventory. Distributors took 20%. Plus you had to actually make a box/CD/etc. They were lucky to keep 30% not pay it.

This doesn't mean Valve is perfect but if a developer is "suffering" because of a 30% cut they probably need to improve their pricing/game/community/etc.

Re: Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license

#164

Post by foresto »

poisonborz wrote: post #29

Even if Valve and Steam is great and overall a blessing for the PC space, I don't like the direction they take with this controller. It only works with Steam, it can't work on a desktop OS without it, despite standard layout. It is a subtle move towards a walled garden.

> It only works with Steam, it can't work on a desktop OS without it, despite standard layout.

This review says otherwise:

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/05/the-new-steam-controll...

> Using The Steam Controller Completely Outside Of Steam

> [...] However, at least on the newly released Fedora KDE 44, the system does appear to detect it as a basic gamepad out of the box.

> [...] I installed LIMBO from GOG with GE-Proton and it worked great even with vibration.

More example games are described there as well. A few apparently get confused by the Steam Controller presenting itself as a game controller, a keyboard, and a mouse, but most seem to be fine.

Those tests were done on Linux. I wonder if it's any different on Windows.

Re: Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license

#165

Post by doctorpangloss »

benoau wrote: post #19
herpdyderp wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes I wonder what we did to deserve Valve and how long it can possibly last.

We let kids gamble so much money in games that they don't have to nickel and dime the adults.

The problem with Steam is developers are paying 30% to introduce their players to CSGO and DOTA2.

Another POV is, nobody on HN has any idea what he's talking about, it's all vibes.

Re: Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license

#166

Post by [deleted] »

jpk2f2 wrote: post #158
poisonborz wrote: post #29

Even if Valve and Steam is great and overall a blessing for the PC space, I don't like the direction they take with this controller. It only works with Steam, it can't work on a desktop OS without it, despite standard layout. It is a subtle move towards a walled garden.

I'm not sure what you mean, it works outside of Steam. For example, SDL has full steam controller support.

[deleted]

Re: Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license

#167

Post by ahartmetz »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #115
bitmasher9 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understood people who argue steam doesn’t have real competition. The number of fully funded attempts to compete with steam is impressive. Steam has more competition than any other of the major app stores. Steam also had to provide additional value over pre-existing methods of installing games on the PC in a way the Android Play Store or the PlayStation Store did not have to.

It is incredible how much the other stores fumbled the implementation. As a rule, Epic, Origin, etc apps were terrible. Laggy, bad UI, sometimes difficult to even complete a purchase. You would have thought that close relationship with the games industry- someone must know how to make a high performance native application. Yet it always felt like web developers pumping out another half assed Electron platform. The St…

What's more, Epic spends order of magnitude a billion dollars per year on free games on the Epic Store. People still don't want the Epic Store because it's crap. Like Jesus H. Fucking Christ, do these assclowns ever get a clue?

I'm very fine with them not getting a clue though, Valve spends money and effort on promoting Linux and Epic (Tim Sweeney) kinda does the opposite. With all the shit Microsoft is pulling, he still prefers Windows while complaining about it.

Re: Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license

#168

Post by graynk »

foresto wrote: post #164
poisonborz wrote: post #29

Even if Valve and Steam is great and overall a blessing for the PC space, I don't like the direction they take with this controller. It only works with Steam, it can't work on a desktop OS without it, despite standard layout. It is a subtle move towards a walled garden.

> It only works with Steam, it can't work on a desktop OS without it, despite standard layout. This review says otherwise: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/05/the-new-steam-controll... > Using The Steam Controller Completely Outside Of Steam > [...] However, at least on the newly released Fedora KDE 44, the system does appear to detect it as a basic gamepad out of the box. > [...] I installed LIMBO from GOG with GE…

it is different on Windows, yeah. it presents itself as several keyboards and mice and does not work as a gamepad.

on Linux I think there's a kernel level driver, but I'm not sure

Re: Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license

#170

Post by fsniper »

roer wrote: post #4

I love the readme on the gitlab page [1]. It feels so.. friendly :) > This repository contains CAD files for the external shell (surface topology) of Steam Controller and the Steam Controller Puck, under a Creative Commons license. This includes an STP model of each, an STL model of each, and an engineering drawing with critical features/keep outs for each. Feel free to use these to make your own Puck holders, Contro…

I wish more IT companies were like Valve.
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