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Valve shows off new Steam Controller before GDC

The latest design for Valve's gaming controller has been revealed just ahead of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Nic Healey Senior Editor / Australia
Nic Healey is a Senior Editor with CNET, based in the Australia office. His passions include bourbon, video games and boring strangers with photos of his cat.
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Nic Healey

Valve continues to tweak the design of its Steam Controller, moving on once more from the last prototype we saw in January.

The latest Steam Controller design. (Credit: Valve)

This version — revealed over the weekend on Valve's blog — ditches the centralised touchscreen of previous prototypes, replacing it with a rather standard logo button with start and select buttons on either side.

An Xbox-style XABY configuration has also been added, along with a slightly unusual D-Pad. In all, the Steam Controller now looks a lot more like, well, a normal gamepad controller.

Valve is hand-building 10 of the new controllers for GDC attendees to playtest this week. Expect a hands-on look from CNET in the near future.

One thing is certainly clear — Valve is some way from finalising the design. We're looking forward to seeing the next prototype changes based on GDC feedback in the near future.