Categories: Blinded by ScienceToys / Games / Collectibles

Always Wanted a Steam Controller? Get One for $5.

The Steam Autumn Sale is officially off and running. This is Steam trying to get out in front of the whole Black Friday thing, and they’re offering discounts on more than 13,000 games on SteamPowered.com. And if you’ve ever been curious about Valve’s gamepad, the Steam Controller, you can snag one (if you’re quick) for just $5 (plus shipping). That’s 10% of the original retail price for the device.

Valve says there are limited quantities remaining of its Steam Controller, so don’t sit on this information too long if you want one.

This is actually the final bow for the Steam Controller. They’re not going to be making them anymore after this, so what’s being sold is the tailings of the last production run of them. They’re being sold until gone.

It was part of the failed Steam hardware initiative, started in 2013 with the Steam Link, a wireless HDMI link that allowed you to play your computer games on your big screen TV. That was discontinued last year, and now it’s the Controller’s turn.

It’s actually a shame that this product has reached its end of life. The controller is tremendously capable and reconfigurable, features sounds and haptic feedback, and can even be used with games that weren’t written to use a controller to start with. Nor does the device use a wireless dongle, eschewing that for straight up BlueTooth – meaning that it’ll work up to 20 feet away from your computer, without taking up one of your USB ports.

It’ll even play Chiptunes using the haptic feedback motors.

If you’re handy with stuff like this, here’s a link to the source code.

If anything, the Steam Controller is too versatile. Setting it up can be a chore, but once done it works almost like magic. It’s also made to work with literally anything – meaning there’s no hardware lock-in for any particular game or class of games. This makes it hard to bundle the controller with any one game.

As for Steam games themselves, the Steam Autumn Sale is featuring some great titles:

Battletech – $13.59 (-66%
Cities Skylines – $7.49 (-75%)
Code Vein – $41.99 (-30%)
Dead Cells – $17.49 (-30%)
Deep Rock Galactic – $20.09 (-33%)
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep – $20.99 (-40%)
Gears 5 – $29.99 (-50%)
Grand Theft Auto 5 – $14.99 (-50%)
Kerbal Space Program – $9.99 (-75%)
Killing Floor 2 – $9.89 (-67%)
No Man’s Sky – $29.99 (-50%)
Portal 2 – $0.99 (-90%)
Rage 2 – $19.79 (-67%)
Soulcalibur 6 – $17.99 (-70%)
Stellaris – $9.99 (-75%)
Total War Rome 2 – $14.99 (-75%)
Totally Accurate Battle Simulator – $11.24 (-25%)
Warhammer Vermintide 2 – $7.49 (-75%)

If you’re looking for real bargains, here are the Steam Autumn Sale deals that cost less than $10 and less than $5. The Steam Autumn Sale runs November 26 through December 3.

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