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Forums - Gaming - Required Xbox controller

Zippy6 4 days ago
shavenferret said:

Aaarrrrrrr, why? 

A Steam game that I want to get needs a Xbox controller, and controllers are required. Why do they clearly prefer a Xbox controller when nobody even plays the Xbox?

Xbox should just give up so that the industry can move on. 

I don't think any steam game can mandate what brand controller you have to use. Any brand gamepad should work with steam input.

Steam certification would throw them out if it only worked with one brand of GamePad, if that were even technically possible to achieve.



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Zippy6 4 days ago
G2ThaUNiT said:

Do you know how overwhelmingly used Xbox controllers are on PC? Lol like, it’s not even close.

You rarely see PlayStation or Nintendo controllers used. You’re more likely to see third party controllers with an Xbox layout than you are the other 2. That’s why Xbox puts out so many controllers. And it’s natively supported on Windows.

If you want a different layout, just go to the games properties in your Steam library and set the Steam Input to PlayStation.

This may have been the case for the longest time, since the 360 era, but it's been changing fast. Steam in 2024 revealed the breakdown as:

59% Xbox Controller, 26% Playstation Controller, 10% Steam Deck, 5% Other.

So Xbox now is only around 2:1 to Playstation Controllers on PC. Far from the likely 90%+ dominance they had in the early 2010's.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/4142827237888316812



VersusEvil 4 days ago

What game? 🤨



Ride The Chariot | ‘25 Completion

Zkuq 4 days ago
Pemalite said:
Zkuq said:

I don't know about other controllers, but I'm pretty sure Steam supports Sony's controllers in all games that supports controllers. You might have to change some controller options for the game via Steam (not in-game!), but I'm pretty sure that way you can tell Steam to essentially mimic an Xbox controller regardless of what you're using. I recently played Pumpkin Jack using DualShock 4, and the game officially supports only Xbox controllers (support for other controllers is listed as 'not known'). The key prompts look like Xbox buttons in-game, but usually it's not really an issue.

It's only relatively recently in PC-terms that Sony's controllers have support. (Think: Less than 10 years)
And it's mostly thanks to valve providing the intermediary support.

Many older games will need to use a 3rd party application like DS4Windows to trick the game into thinking it's an Xbox controller that is using Xinput.

One good thing Microsoft has done over the last several decades was its PC xbox controller support while Sony and Nintendo looked the other way... Xbox controllers are just a flawless experience... Not to mention before Microsoft came along, PC controllers were cheap junk from the like of Logitech.

Absolutely. I think I've had to resort to using DS4Windows (or possibly running the game through Steam) when playing a non-Steam game relatively recently.

I think I also have a Logitech F310 from before Sony's controllers were a thing on PC. I think it was considered a pretty good controller for its price back then, but now that Sony's controllers work fairly well on PC, I don't really want to use it anymore - it's just not as a good.



Leynos 4 days ago

If was someone who could make a Game Jam game and get it approved for Steam. I'd require a Casio Loopy controller just for fun.



Bite my shiny metal cockpit!

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shavenferret 2 days ago
Pemalite said:
shavenferret said:

Aaarrrrrrr, why? 

A Steam game that I want to get needs a Xbox controller, and controllers are required. Why do they clearly prefer a Xbox controller when nobody even plays the Xbox?

Xbox should just give up so that the industry can move on. 

Xbox controllers tend to be the most popular controllers on PC. That is why.

well ok, but XBOX is declining so a reckoning will happen



Pemalite 21 hours ago
shavenferret said:
Pemalite said:

Xbox controllers tend to be the most popular controllers on PC. That is why.

well ok, but XBOX is declining so a reckoning will happen

PC isn't Xbox.

Microsoft *used* to make dedicate PC controllers before Xbox even existed... For example the Sidewinder range.


So it goes without saying that Microsoft's controllers will continue to exist even when Xbox ceases to exist as a brand... PC is a bigger market than any console platform remember.




www.youtube.com/@Pemalite

Ultrashroomz 19 hours ago

I use DualSense, most games have no issues recognizing it, and for games that don't officially support it, Steam Input basically forces them to recognize it as an Xinput device.

There are also mods for games that replace Xbox glyphs with DualSense or DualShock 3/4 glyphs (depends on how old the game is).



"Just for comparison Uncharted 4 was 20x bigger than Splatoon 2. This shows the huge difference between Sony's first-party games and Nintendo's first-party games."

Norion 19 hours ago

Xbox controllers are really comfortable but the major issue with them nowadays is that the feature set is outdated. The Xbox Series controller is so unchanged from the Xbox One controller that gyro wasn't even added. Even the Elite Series 2 didn't add that feature which is an absurd omission for such an expensive controller. At least with the original one you can add gyro to it by buying an accessory.

Their top position on PC will keep getting threatened regardless of what they do since Playstation users being way higher than Xbox users means before long the majority of console users who switch to PC will be used to Playstation controllers but they still better take a leap forward with the next Xbox controller since I'd prefer if the controller type I'm used to caught up.