130°

Indie dev shares thoughts on Steam Controller after getting hands-on

Dan Tabár, the game designer behind Cortex Command, got his hands on a prototype of the recently announced Steam Controller and says he has “no qualms” with the ergonomic feel of the controller and is “surprised how well it worked.

camel_toad4274d ago

As both a pc and console gamer I'm on the fence about the steam machines but a major change in how we know "controllers" sure is interesting.

starchild4274d ago

The way I look at it, ss a current PC gamer with a fairly high end rig, the Steam Machines are simply there to lower the bar of entry into PC gaming for people who were previously intimidated by the complexity and the idea that it doesn't work well for living room gaming.

SteamOS is of obvious benefit for current PC gamers if it indeed brings the kinds of performance advantages they are alluding to.

The Steam Controller is also really exciting simply because I think it has the potential to improve game control/input and to combine some of the best elements of gamepads and mouse-like precision.

Thehyph4274d ago

Well put.

I believe that the steam box idea will play well because it can be both entry level and high end.

SteamOS is, truly, the nerd fantasy becoming that much closer to reality. Performance will increase by not having to run Windows. Also, there are Linux equivalents to pretty much any Windows app out there, and I believe that both Valve and Linux software devs will push hard to let people know that.

I would love to get my hands on that controller. If I were still a PC gamer, then I would probably prefer mouse and keyboard, but I can definitely see uses for this new thing. It's pushing boundaries in terms of gamepad development. It should be great for the couch. I wouldn't be surprised if this was also designed to work great with that other technology that Valve is openly embracing: Oculus Rift.

I'm excited to see how it all plays out.

forcefullpower4274d ago

I really want to get my hands on this. Its supposed to have tactical feedback on the pads.

Kryptix4274d ago

Can't wait to try out this controller. It looks like it will make things more precise with aiming in first person shooters and easier to select units in real time strategy games. I can already see the advantages it will bring but I know it might pose a problem with certain genres like fighting games. We'll see but definitely interested in the Steam console so far. I know Half Life 3 might end up as a PC/Steam console exclusive as one of the reasons to pick this up. Well, I can't wait to read more into it.

4274d ago
OrangePowerz4274d ago

Curious to know why they mainly give it to indie developers who might be a bit biased because almighty Valve picked them to test the controller.

thehitman4274d ago

I am curious how you will play fighting games, oh wait PC doesnt have those.. nvm.

Sitdown4274d ago

Guess you missed the Injustice announcement.

pennywhyz4274d ago

U know nothing PC has tons of fighters dont be mad cause you cant afford a PC

thehitman4274d ago

lol? I have a really good PC rig try again. PC doesnt have good fighting games, the ones that are on PC you need the keyboard to use as a D-pad and that controller design completely alienates the genre in total. Fighting games is a genre that has a well placed home on consoles and to design a controller that completely ignores them is a bad sign in itself. The steambox should never be called a console just because it has a dedicated O/S for games and has a controller attached to it. Its just a PC for people who know nothing about building one and want to game on PC. Most ridiculous design I ever seen.

250°

89 million Steam account details allegedly leaked, but no one seems to know how

A LinkedIn post from Underdark AI made the discovery, stating that datasets are being sold for over $5,000 on a known black market forum.

Cockney38d ago

Biggest hack in gaming history if true

Christopher38d ago

No personal details, mostly account names, no passwords. Likely would need other account leaks to hope that someone reuses a password with a similar account name on another already leaked service. While a lot of users, the data is useless. Kind of notably by the $5k request for the data.

FinalFantasyFanatic36d ago

Plus, if you have 2FA enabled, then you were at zero risk anyway, from what I've read, Steam isn't even recommending password changes as it's apparently unnecessary.

VariantAEC31d ago

@Christopher
Where are you getting that from?
The linked article above says, "The seller claims this is a “fresh” leak and says it includes usernames, passwords, two-factor SMS logs, message contents, metadata, delivery status, and other sensitive details." Which sure sounds like they might have a lot of other information. If this leak is legitimate I better stop hearing people falsely say PSN is the worst secured digital storefront (even though that hasn't been true for a very long time with far larger data breaches since 2011 all over the world including the Equifax breach which was several times larger).

VariantAEC31d ago

@FinalFantasyFanatic
That seems true only if you use Steam Guard. If you opted for T2A via SMS the article suggests it's time to make the switch to Steam Guard and of course change your password.

Christopher31d ago (Edited 31d ago )

From the credit URL: https://x.com/MellowOnline1...

The article doesn't do a good job of going into the updated detail, they just mention part of it.

Just because the seller claims something, doesn't make it true. If it truly contained that data, it would be worth way more than just $5k. SMS systems don't rely on getting passwords for accounts they're sending an SMS to, just the username, phone number, and timestamp info.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 31d ago
Profchaos36d ago (Edited 36d ago )

You don't remember the psn hack I take it

Cockney36d ago

I do remember it being 77 million, thats why I made my comment

BlueDaBaDee36d ago

Update:
"Valve has now confirmed that “this was NOT a breach of Steam systems” and users do not need to change their passwords as a result. However, it continues to recommend that you set up the Steam Mobile authenticator for extra security."

https://store.steampowered....

Fishy Fingers36d ago

Shame. I liked the idea someone paid 5 grand just for my silly steam name.

DivineHand12536d ago

The government needs a taskforce with serious fundung that can opporate across borders to go after cyber criminals.

It is getting out of hand and it is the regular citizens of the world that suffer the consequences of these hacks and breaches.

My fear is that if left unchecked, state sponsored hackers from corrupt or governents under sections may use this as a method of raising revenue at the expense of everyone else.

Fishy Fingers36d ago

Bro teeing up a Mission Impossible movie.

ZeekQuattro36d ago

Not in this administration. If anything hes been dissolving existing task forces meant to protect consumers.

Amplitude36d ago (Edited 36d ago )

Why? They’d just use the funding to funnel hundred of millions of dollars into fake NGOs that then funnel it into democrat pockets while doing zero cyber criminal defence work.

Then if anybody tried to defund them it’d be a whole thing with the mainstream media claiming that there will be endless cyber attacks. NGOs would then fund protest groups to attack anybody that supports defunding the government’s cyber attack defence branch and then it would turn out it was also being used to stabilize or destabilize governments in other countries and overthrow elections to benefit America. Which is fine until they start using it on us again.

Let’s just not. Private companies who know what they’re doing (Valve) can deal with it

RIP USAID. God bless

Profchaos36d ago (Edited 36d ago )

It's not a may use this not we know state sponsored attacks do this already.

It's a global problem you couldn't have one government playing world police it would require joint collaboration with foreign governments and the problem is many laws have not kept pace with advancement of technology.

even then it's hard to say with certainty if an attack was a state sponsored attacks or a cybercriminal group operating outside of governments

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 36d ago
pwnmaster300036d ago

remember when certain groups were saying PC gamers don’t want other subscriptions because it was not safe and steam was the spot lol.

Shiore2u36d ago ShowReplies(6)
badz14936d ago

it's time to riot, right, pc gamers??

pwnmaster300036d ago

Be careful, PC gamers are the most touchy out of the gamers lol

staticall36d ago

@badz149
@pwnmaster3000
Have you guys actually read what was «leaked»? It was SMS messages from 3rd party provider (not from Steam itself) with one-time 2FA codes (that are active for 15 minutes). No Steam account details, access to an account or any of that jazz.

Let me quote official Steam response:
«The leak consisted of older text messages that included one-time codes that were only valid for 15-minute time frames and the phone numbers they were sent to. The leaked data did not associate the phone numbers with a Steam account, password information, payment information or other personal data. Old text messages cannot be used to breach the security of your Steam account, and whenever a code is used to change your Steam email or password using SMS, you will receive a confirmation via email and/or Steam secure messages.»
Source: https://store.steampowered....

The only bad thing about this is the phone numbers. But while that sucks, attacker doesn't know which Steam account this phone number belongs to. IMO, the only thing people should be rioting about is how unprotected the SMS are and the 3rd party service that was used by Steam. I'm all for punishing people who screwed up and/or lacked the security. But this is not it.

FinalFantasyFanatic36d ago

Why riot? They have nothing of value, can't even steal an account with the details they have, they would have to attempt a brute force attack, you can already do that with a Steam user's account name (or any account on any site) if you really wanted to spend the time and processing power to do it.

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60°

Creature Collector Fest hits Steam with some epic discounts

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70°

Unmourned is a new horror title made by 2 brothers from Greece

Codebros Studio comes from Thessaloniki Greece and presents us with their new horror game Unmourned which you can check out now on Steam.

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