They're working on that, actually. Here's one such thread, but you have to realize that this controller is new and shiny, (and technically not in stores yet.).

I don't think most people seem to realise this.

That just shows the massive influx of pre-orders.

I'm not saying it's surprising, I'm just saying it's a dick move.

but we don't know what's happening in the future so what's the point in judging already? Especially considering its literally just out.

At first I was mildly excited about the Steam controller but then remembered I rarely play the kind of games on PC that require a controller, and I already have a standard gamepad for the rare occasions I need one.

I see the Steam controller mainly as a tool for those buying a Steam Machine.

If the Steam controller were only useful for games that require a controller it would be pretty useless.

Isn't the whole point of the Steam Controller that you can play any game designed for keyboard and mouse just as well as with keyboard and mouse?

That is something that I want: A controller that has at least one control method that is just as precise as a computer mouse, has as many keys as possible, doesn't waste any space where there could be additional keys, has rebindable keys etc.
If the Steam Controller isn't that then I don't even have to look at it.

I don't know. My memory could be entirely wrong but I thought the Steam controller was announced at around the same time as the Steam Machine was spoken of, so in my mind I've always seen it as an appendage of the Machine.

The point of the Machine is 'Steam couch gaming', which a controller is useful for, thus the Steam controller was born. My reasoning could be wrong though, I don't know the dates of when these two concepts were first thought of.

It it works reasonably well for games other than action games I might be interested as well, but I want to see the controller in use for these kind of games beforehand.

http://store.steampowered.com/hardware/?snr=1_4_4__132

You can't be realistically expecting that, unless you think that e.g. laptop trackpads are "just as precise" as using a mouse. Because that's what the "mouse" in the Steam controller seems to be basically, a concave trackpad which you control with your thumb.

I would be very surprised if it would be anywhere near as accurate as a real mouse, but I don't think it has to be, as long as it is better for e.g. FPS games than an analog thumbstick that regular gamepads have.

Anyway, if it doesn't work also as a regular gamepad outside of Steam (with GOG, Origin etc. games), I'll still pass I think. I don't have that big need for a mouse-like gamepad, even if sometimes one might be quite nice (when there is no desk). I already have a Logitech trackball device as well, but then my wireless mouse works fine now when I am writing this from the couch, with no desk (wireless keyboard on my lap, and wireless mouse on the sofa armrest).

Maybe at this point I'm more hoping that this like of "mouse gamepads" would become commonplace on future gaming consoles, so that console FPS games wouldn't suck so much due to the atrocious gamepad aiming (analog thumbstick).

I imagine the haptic feedback and concave shape make it much better than most laptop trackpads.

Anyway, I am only going to consider buying such a controller if they make a wired one that works well without Steam.
If another company makes a wired Steam Controller like pad that performs about as well, I will definitely buy it.

Doesn't the normal keymapping software like xpadder or pinnacle work with the steampad or does it need someone to make special drivers like the Wii remote or Playstation controllers?

A Wii remote and something like the old nostromo pad or the datahand* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rzFqEqzhmA ?

Seriously the state of game controllers in this day and age is moronic and it doesn't help when you have legions of retards complaining that even the wiis controls are too much effort.

* and even that could be improved for gaming.

Seems really interesting.

Yupp.
But so are the standard gaming mice and keyboards. Extra mouse buttons should be placed everywhere, especially on the right side and I want gaming mice to be as ergonomic as XBOX 360 controllers.
Why isn't the standard gaming keyboard half a keyboard? If you buy a keyboard especially for gaming, why does its usability have to suffer just because keyboards are usually used for typing?
Well, Nintendo fails to make useful and ergonomic controllers- at least since the N64.
It would be great if the XBOX controllers simply had more buttons in easy to reach positions (like on the back of the pad) (and a usable D-pad, if they haven't already taken care of that with the XBOX One controller).
First of all, your game has to be usable with a mouse and controller keys at the same time.

If that's possible, you simply have to create a key mapping with a text editor, I think.

I have a Steam Controller myself and I love the thing to death. The right trackpad is really damn good as an analog replacement and is about on par with using a trackball mouse - not quite as good as a traditional mouse since your thumb just doesn't have the fine manipulation of your whole arm, but significantly better than a traditional trackpad or smartphone screen.

The haptic feedback is what really makes the controller work. By default the right trackpad mimics a trackball, you feel the same sensation as a ball lightly vibrating a mouse as imperfections in the ball cause some friction. It's sort of like how you can easily find the F and J keys on your keyboard, you can feel for it. Or it's sort of like gliding your thumb over somewhat coarse sand, you can feel grains and thus deduce distance travelled.

If you really want to be accurate, the gyro function works stupidly well. My typical setup for anything requiring accuracy is to have the right trackpad act as a high sensitivity mouse and then set the gyro to low sensitivity for fine tuned-accuracy, using the high feedback's clicking to feel for where I'm aiming. It works well enough even against other players and I can hit really tiny bits of UI from improperly scaling games. It's not quite as fast as doing it with a real mouse so I wouldn't use it in Quake, but it's good enough to feel unhindered in most modern shooters.

Only real complaint is that I have to use Steam with it, but their UI for configuration is damn sexy. Not that the GUI makes good use of screen space as it's very much meant for a TV screen, but that it has sliders for just about everything (wish they'd show numbers beside the sliders though). I hope whatever third gets it working also helps with getting the level of granularity that the Steam version has, in particular the overlay for the Touch Menu.