If you always felt that Valve's Steam controller was a bit of an odd design, opting for touchpad controls rather than traditional thumbsticks, well there's now a middle ground. The touchpads are still there in prominent positions, but Valve's added a thumbstick too, replacing the traditional D-PAD.
Spotted as part of a Steam Client beta update by SteamDB, the image of the latest Steam controller design shows that where the directional buttons once were, there's now a omni-directional thumbstick. The opposite side still features the usual face buttons however.
Of course this doesn't necessarily mean that this particular set up is the design Valve is going for, but it does mean that Valve is considering it, which suggests there's a sector of the devkit wielding populace that wants a traditional thumbstick on there somewhere, if only so it can be rolled around for Mario-Party like minigames.
Valve has made a multitude of revisions to the Steam controller since its original inception, showing an initial central touchpad, throwing in different buttons, like one for screenshots and another for quick load or quick save etc.
What do you guys think of this potential design? Is adding a thumbstick a good idea?
