Final Update: My Steam Controller (2026) hardware seems to be fine after all!
There is something funky going on with some combination of Steam Controller, Bazzite, and Big Picture “Gaming” Mode, creating problems with inputs in the Steam menu itself… It’s still a minor issue for me.
But I was able to open Ultra Street Fighter IV and give the controller a thorough test in training mode with visible inputs, and it acted as expected (without dropping or doubling inputs at all). It worked well in game, and I found the d-pad and track pad to be pretty solid for fighting games, too!
So, in short, something is causing it to bug out a little bit in the Bazzite HTPC Big Picture Mode, but it’s working pretty well in games and I’m now confident that there isn’t any hardware-related issue.
Turns out the Steam Controller doesn’t suck afterall!
Original Post: After a long shipping process (and an even longer wait) I finally got my new Steam Controller (2026), only to find that… it sucks!?
It drops inputs in Steam Big Picture Mode (or rather, Bazzite’s gaming mode). And when it’s not dropping inputs, it’s doubling them!
The puck is ~15ft (4.5m) away from me, on top of the TV stand with direct line of sight to me and it reports having a bad and unstable connection. To make matters worse, the input issues seem to happen regardless of whether it’s a wireless or wired connection…
Finally, the pairing process is straight up laughable. Connect the controller to your puck to try to pair it, and it prompts you on screen to confirm? How am I supposed to agree to pair it if my controller isn’t paired in the first place??
Am I the only one having a terrible experience with this controller so far? This was supposed to be an easy win for Valve…
I sure hope they have some kind of emergency patch in the works for this thing because right now I’m on the verge of asking for a refund.
They’ve released a couple firmware/steam updates for people having doubled inputs, so definitely make sure you have those all installed. A new firmware update for the controller was released last night.
Under Controller>Advanced settings in steam big picture mode, you can try forcibly updating all hardwired controllers.
You shouldn’t be having any signal issues at that range, so you either have something defective or some really bad signal interference. I’m leaning towards something being defective, because my puck doesn’t have line of sight, is immediately next to a router and a bunch of bluetooth devices, and hasn’t had any connection issues. You also mentioned the issues happening while wired, which definitely suggests a controller issue and not a connection problem.
I guess I’m up to date, though it’s not really clear…
The first time I plugged in the puck, Steam recognized it and prompted me to update the puck firmware. Ok, that went fine.
But then it told me to unplug the puck and plug in the controller, at which point the controller was not automatically recognized and I had no way to proceed.
I ended up quitting out of that menu and finding a button to update the controller in the general settings menu, after which that button simply disappeared (?) or something…
I’ve tried that one. You click “start” and it spins for 2-3 seconds before going right back to saying “start”. It’s unclear to me what, if anything, it does.
Yeah… I’ve sent in a Steam support ticket.
I’m trying to keep my cool about it, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t pretty annoyed at how shoddy this thing seems to be, given my long standing support of Valve hardware, the long delays, $100 price tags, struggling to buy it immediately, and it now being sold out.
I’m sure that I’ll love it if I can get it to work, but it’s still a little frustrating that this thing doesn’t just work right out of the box.
You can force-flash the firmware from developer mode: https://lemmy.world/post/46802249
If the process fails, try another USB cable.