Two years ago, Valve told The Verge it wanted a successor to its cult classic Steam Controller, whose incredibly customizable buttons and touchpads paved the way for the Steam Deck handheld PC. Now, Valve watcher Brad Lynch claims a Steam Controller 2 — codename “Ibex” — is actually getting made.
His sources tell him the Steam Controller 2 is currently being tooled for mass production, and it’s apparently not the only new Valve gamepad on the way!
Remember the long-swirling rumors about Valve’s standalone “Deckard” VR headset, the one that could be an inexpensive Meta Quest-like wireless alternative to the aging Valve Index? Lynch has discovered references to a new wand-like “Roy” controller in Valve’s SteamVR code, and his sources say that Roy is now aimed at mass production as well.
What’s more, “Roy” may have enough buttons to double as a Steam Controller gamepad when it’s not acting as your hands in VR. Unlike the Index wands, they’ll apparently have a D-pad, bumpers (aka shoulder buttons), and a full set of ABXY buttons for traditional gaming as well.
Without seeing it I can take a guess that it’s because after 2 games, everyone’s tired of that IP and wants to do something else (and most of it’s not making video games). Getting detailed glimpses of how Valve works over the years has made me really wonder what most of them actually do these days. Surely it’s not just maintaining CS2, DOTA2, TF2 and working on Deadlock. It just also may not be video game related.
They explicitly said they only make games out of interesting new tech or gameplay mechanics. Then, they polish it with QoL and riffing ideas with said concepts (usually version 2). They don’t continue unless they have enough new fun things worth to fill an entire game. They mention each of half-life’s things. They experimented with blob physics and ice physics for HL3 but finally decided it wasn’t enough to fill an entire game. The blobs returned as Portal 2 liquids, as the portal gun already added enough variety and fun things to do with it. So they made that instead.
They don’t care all that much about storytelling or resolving cliffhangers, unless they come from some gameplay. Telling a story is never the driving force in their games. Gameplay is.