By Rahul Majumdar
Contributing Sports Writer
After releasing the Steam Deck over two years ago, Valve is working on a set of new hardware. A recent leak from Brad Lynch, a well-known figure in the VR community, revealed that Valve is working on a new iteration of the Steam Controller, along with a new VR headset codenamed "Deckard".
Following the premature reveal of its existence, we now have a better idea of what the new hardware might look like. Images of the Steam controller, codenamed "Ibex", show design elements from the Steam Deck carrying over to the hardware, including the dual touchpads and symmetrical analog sticks.
As for the Deckard's "Roy" controllers, they look similar to the controllers used by the Meta Quest 3's Touch Plus controllers. The VR controllers include standard ABXY buttons, bumpers, and grip triggers. According to Lynch, every button on the controller will feature "capacitive touch", and Valve will also produce "optional" straps for it.
Information about the Deckard VR device first came to light in 2021, when the company mentioned it in the backend files of SteamVR. Initial estimates point to the device using an ARM processor, moving away from the x86 architecture used in the Steam Deck. This also differentiates it from the Valve Index, the company's previous VR device, which relied on a client computer.
It's possible that Valve is planning to release both the Steam Controller 2 and the "Roy" controllers sometime in 2025, but the company hasn't publicly announced the products. Valve is also currently holding private, but easily searchable, playtests for Deadlock, its upcoming third-person MOBA, so the company has invested in plenty of secret projects simultaneously. This also includes Half-Life 3 which, according to Valve enthusiast Gabe Follower, is also in the works.
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