The new Steam Controller recently launched by Valve has achieved outstanding results since the first day of its launch. Now the company has taken a step further to the community and officially released the 3D CAD file of this controller, inviting players and mold enthusiasts to participate in peripheral modification and accessory design. What Valve provides this time is a complete official 3D model of the Steam Controller and Puck, including STP and STL format files, as well as engineering drawings marking key structures and prohibited areas, allowing creators to design accessories such as protective cases, brackets or functional expansions with known tolerances and reserved space.
Valve believes that its community has gathered a large number of hardware and 3D printing enthusiasts with rich experience, and new accessories are developed from ideas to finished products every day. Now that the official drawings are released, it is expected to further spawn third-party accessory solutions with bolder shapes and more segmented functions.
In the official eyes, this step is not only open to "playability", but also to "modification": from simple shell customization and grip strengthening, to ergonomic modifications designed for specific groups of people, to button layout adjustments for specific game types, these ideas will have the opportunity to quickly trial and error and iterate based on accurate models. It is expected that various 3D printing files and physical modification cases will appear on social platforms soon, providing more personalized choices for early users who purchased Steam Controller.
Prior to this, Valve has just confirmed to users that the Steam Controller restock is coming soon. Thanks to the performance of the first round of sales that far exceeded expectations, this $99 controller was sold out within about 30 minutes of going on sale. The official website payment system was even frozen due to excessive traffic. Some users frequently encountered errors during the checkout process and could only wait for the website and payment services to return to normal. In order to avoid a similar situation, some players recharged their Steam wallets a few days in advance in an attempt to reduce potential risks in the payment process at the moment of sale. However, the high demand still prevented many people from getting the first batch of spot goods.
For users who have successfully placed orders, these controllers, which have become "hot goods", are now being obtained one after another, while players who failed to buy them immediately turned to the secondary market. Some scalpers and resellers raised the price to about US$300, which is nearly three times the official price. Valve has repeatedly called out to the community, hoping that players will wait patiently for subsequent restocks and not be bothered by premium purchases, and emphasized that new supply batches are already in progress.
With official CAD files now generally available to the public, the Steam Controller story is evolving from a popular hardware product to a programmable platform shaped by both manufacturers and players. In the coming period, modification accessories, creative shells and even function expansion modules surrounding this set of controllers are expected to become the focus of another round of discussion in the Steam community and the wider PC gamer circle.
Learn more:
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steam_hardware/announcements/detail/702141174212723353