Look at that new stick!
The original thumbstick of the Steam Controller was always a bit imperfect. I bought my Steam Controller on day one, but a few years in, the soft-touch material on the stick started to flake off. That’s gross!
Those flakes that rub off also don’t help with gripping the stick. It already has a convex-shaped top, which I like less than a concave top. It always feels like I’m pushing the stick in some direction but my thumb is slowly slipping.
After almost a decade of putting up with this, I had enough. I looked around online and found that people had figured out how to upgrade that part of the Steam Controller, and it’s actually decently easy and cheap.
Replacing the stick
It turns out the replacement sticks for the 8BitDo SN30 Pro fit perfectly in the Steam Controller!
The Steam Controller is held together with Torx T6 screws. I opened it up and carefully lifted up the mainboard, making sure not to harm the ribbon cable underneath. From there, I pulled the stock thumbstick cap off of the stick and slipped on the replacement one.
I now have a Steam Controller with a thumbstick that doesn’t rub off and is even concave for better grip!
Obligatory: Fuck Polygon since it is now a website owned by people who built their empire on rape
https://www.polygon.com/2021/2/3/22264213/valve-steam-controller-lawsuit-scuf-4-million/ covers the lawsuit.
It was filed in 2015. Valve discontinued the controller at some point between that and when they finally sold out in 2019.
That can mean one of two (main) things:
Both are fairly plausible because 4 million USD isn’t even what GabeN spends on knives in a given year. Neither paint a picture of the Steam Controller being some wild success.
Because, if it were, they could have just as easily
Its great you like it. That doesn’t mean others did.