According to the latest data mining information, Valve may be about to announce the rumored Steam Controller 2. Well-known Valve whistleblower SadlyItsBradley shared an image of what appears to be a Steam Controller 2 on Twitter/X, which was discovered in the latest Steam backend update.
Scalable vector graphics (SVG) files appearing in the database indicate that Valve may be preparing for the official release of this new controller.
The tipster explained that the Steam controller 2 SVG file discovered this time is only a simplified version of the icon and does not represent all the buttons or input layouts on the actual controller.
Sadly Its Bradley also mentioned a previous leak from SteamDB founder Djundik showing a concept design for the Steam Controller 2. It is reported that this controller is code-named "Ibex" within Valve. According to leaked design drawings, the Steam Controller 2 will be equipped with two analog sticks, two trackpads, a direction key (D-pad), eight front buttons and four shoulder buttons, and will likely also include back buttons.
The dual joysticks of the controller have a symmetrical layout and are similar in position to the Nintendo Switch Pro controller. As for the reason why the image was leaked, Djundik pointed out that Valve had set a "free downloadable" permission in the SteamVR application, allowing anonymous accounts to access all data warehouses (depots). One of the data warehouses contains content related to VR headsets and controllers (codenamed Deckard/Roy).
Although Valve seems to be preparing for its new VR headsets and controllers, the commercial growth of virtual reality technology among Steam users remains stagnant, according to a report by George Jijiashvili, senior principal analyst at Omdia. According to Valve's latest hardware survey, only about 1.5% of Steam users use VR headsets.