Valve's Firmware Update Allows Gamers to Use Controller Outside of Steam [Details]

An update on Valve's controller allows it to function even outside of Steam, and could be used to navigate through a personal computer.

Digital Trends said the update was released on Thursday last week and included a number of features, like making it usable "outside of gaming."

The controller update gave players the capacity to edit configurations to navigate through their PC and control the play, pause and volume control buttons.

It also became compatible with non-Steam games through a new Steam Client beta.

The same report noted that this beta allows players to save and transfer their settings to other devices, even if they use a different Steam account; this is called "configuration traveling."

In addition, Gadget Gestures said the controller will also be more flexible and versatile as gamers can learn how to easily use the game stick.

In terms of gaming, the controller surprises us with its enhanced flexibility and versatility. We all know how hard it is for an inveterate computer gamer to switch from mouse and keyboard to a game controller. Most of us would rather smash the joystick into pieces after being machine-gunned by a low-level foe.

"The boring rudder will turn into an almost mouse-like controller which is sure to screw a smile on everyone's face," added the same report.

It will also be customizable, meaning that gamers can assign hotkeys of certain functions for their games, as per Gadget Gestures.

In a similar report, BidnessETC said that the Mouse Regions is another great feature for the controller. This gives players the chance to save an area on their game screen to their mouse trackpad.

With this feature, gamers can easily navigate various HUD sections and game interface, and then go back to the main game.

BidnessETC highlighted that Valve proved that they can control every aspect of the controller to make gaming "fully automated." It also said that the detail and hard work poured into the latest update is a testament of how they want to develop and change gaming in the future.

Along with the update release, Digital Trends added that Valve also made a video, which showed how Steam controllers are made.

"When we first started designing hardware at Valve, we decided we wanted to try and do the manufacturing as well. To achieve our goal of a flexible controller, we felt it was important to have a similar amount of flexibility in our manufacturing process, and that meant looking into automated assembly lines," Valve was quoted by Digital Trends as saying.