Interested to see what Steam’s third announcement is going to be? This Valve controller patent, which reveals user swappable components, is undoubtedly the last of the three Steam announcements.
Now that Valve has made its SteamOS official along with the Steam Machines, those silly rumors of Half-Life 3 being the third announcement can be put to rest. It’s clear now that Valve is focusing on getting hardware and its Linux-based operating system to the living rooms of homes, bringing PC gaming to the masses at an affordable price. But of course, the best way to convert console gamers to PC gamers is to developer a gamepad that everyone can enjoy, whether they are PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 gamers. Which means, a modular controller with swappable parts… is well, very Valve like.
According to the Valve controller patent filing, the gamepad will have a variety of modular input interfaces that can be plugged into the sockets. This will allow for dual analog sticks, a combination of analog and trackball or further any combination of touchpad, directional pad or additional components. In other words, it’s like every gamer’s dream gamepad.
Now let’s keep in mind that this patent was originally filed in 2009 and was published last year on August 24, 2012. Chances are, Valve has made significant changes or improvements for the production unit. We’ll know more details in less than two days time, when Valve makes its third announcement which will not be Half-Life 3 – can we all just put it to rest already?
