This guy will have to wait for his younger brother.
It was available to buy starting noon local time. I refreshed the page until the buy option became available, but kept getting an error when submitting payment. Waited about half an hour and now it’s sold out. Ni modo I guess.


if you can’t find one I’d recommend getting a ps5 controller instead: it at least has one trackpad and a gyro, and works well with steam input.
I find the gyro is more useful than the track pad for mouse input, with an activation button set to capacitive touch on the track pad, or set to the aim button such as left trigger for shooting games.
The PS5 DualSense is definitely the second-best choice if you can’t get a Steam controller. It has comparable features, although I personally feel like the touchpads are placed in suboptimal position compared to the Steam controller. It also has comparable build quality, unlike Microsoft’s various iterations of Xbox controllers that all have absolutely disastrous build quality.
dog help you when (not if) your dualsense gets stick drift tho
Why PS5?
why not any of the other good controllers out there. https://gamepadla.com/
We all know the “trackpad” on the ps5 controller is not really the same at all. Potentiometers for joysticks are unheard of in high quality controllers these days- everybody is using Hall Effect or TMR.
It’s not like games really make use of touch controls these days, at least not the ones releasing on PC with high popularity like Crimson Desert.
PS5 controller specific, there is no dongle. You’re stuck wired or bluetooth. Bluetooth is generally the worst for latency on any controller, and aside from a couple of very specific models with very low bluetooth latency it’s really bad compared to a dedicated dongle / 2.4G.
My biggest gripe with the dualsense is the battery life. I get maybe 3.5 hours from it if I’m lucky and that’s just watching media, literally barely using at all.
Sounds like Sony cheaps out on batteries with their PS controllers and has for some time. I have had battery issues with my PS 4 controller (that I barely use) and that’s part of the reason I was looking forward to the steam controller – battery life.
that’s what steam input is for…
I don’t want to fuck with controller settings to create unique bindings and controls for a feature that has no meaningful value add.
If I wanted four extra buttons or something, i’d just use the extra shoulder buttons and paddle buttons on the back of my controllers. There’s no reason to do this though in crimson desert that I know of, the stock controller binds are awesome.
the steam controller also probably isn’t for you in that case…
I’m willing to bet the overwhelming majority of people buying this who aren’t just scalpers jumping on the ~$200-$300 ebay price tag will never, ever create custom binds for those pads man.
the community creates a lot of custom layouts too, so you just need to scroll down the list and find one. The default ones also generally work pretty well and are easy to modify. It’s just like changing your controls in any pc game.
Id hazard a guess that while the majority of people don’t change their controls, those sort of people also don’t tend to buy a steam controller.
I don’t have any of those 😅 🤷
I’ve not had stick drift… yet… (all of my Nintendo switch nunchuck controllers that I barely use however… all have stick drift 😅)
I’ve never noticed any input lag, but maybe my bt receiver is decent or something 🤷
there’s quite a few community layouts for the DS5 in steam
That gamepadlia site doesn’t appear to have a filter for trackpads…
Yeah, the typical experience for people doesn’t expose them to what’s out there for controllers. Maybe you’ve heard of 8bitdo in passing or have seen the really shitty hori conrollers in your childhood (or any of the other archaic garbage brands that used to exist and were handed to little brothers everywhere as the shitty controller.) Times have changed. I think the non-major brands are better now. I have only tried a small sample of what is out there, but have yet to be disappointed in the $25-$65 range. Can’t speak to the stupid expensive $100-200+ controllers like what razer makes. I usually check reviewers.
Bluetooth as a tech has all kinds of issues for users. Just takes a bad driver update and it’s not working right. Dongles just work, like cables. Plus some controllers are horrible on bluetooth. Latency most people don’t notice without a side by side comparison, but it’s always there. I do use controllers with bluetooth, generally when I have no other option or a dongle isn’t convenient. It’s common for dongles to be included with and removable from charging base stations nowadays, like what comes with the ~$55 8bitdo ultimate wireless 2.
The trackpad filter though you’re looking for doesn’t exist because nothing else works like the valve deck/controller pads. The ps5 one is not really the same without the feedback and awkward placement imo.
I haven’t had stick drift myself either since the 360 days, but I don’t game full time on a controller. It’s one of those every now and then on a specific game i’ll use it. Have a ps5 but hardly played it so the controller is still like new… but I had an xbox elite series 2 controller have shoulder button issues with less than 100 hours used, which led me to look at “off brands” that changed my mind about how to approach controllers overall.
Will say that joystick tension adjustments are awesome, as are adjustable triggers. Most other features are pointless for me but I know macros can be useful for some. The trackpad thing is a hard sell though because the game has to have a meaningful implementation (still waiting to find one of those. Maybe someone with a deck that uses them heavily can chime in…) or you need to setup a custom controls in steam’s direct input somehow to make use of it in a game.
I have a steam controller too and I find the placement of the thumbsticks and face buttons awkward so I tend to use the PS5 one instead, and I don’t find the trackpad placement on it too bad. steam controller trackpad placement is definitely way better though.