Those days when Valve’s Steam Machine was but a glimmer in gamers’ eyes are long past, it seems. Last year, we showed you what the designs for the Steam Machine’s earliest prototype looked like; and yes, that controller of Valve’s is still coming along, too. A blue one.
As you’ll see above, the left touch area now appears to have a directional pad in conjunction with the long-rumored analog stick the controller was purported to have added in the past few months to complement its rather, err, “unusual” touch pads.
Additionally, images via Steam have indicated the inclusion of different “modes” of use akin to what Valve had previously stated were customization preferences that players could access for their Steam controller. Hence, there’ll likely be a variety of control-schemes available at launch for how you want to play, but we don’t know much about whether that blue finish is final.
We also don’t know what happened to the controller’s original designs, sans the D-pad and analog stick. We’ll let you know as the veil over the Steam Machine’s hopefully lifted by Valve in the coming year(s). The world turns differently for the company that gave you Half-Life 2, after all, so stay tuned.