Valve originally revealed the Steam controller last year but since then, it has gone through a lot of changes. In-fact, Valve has delayed its entire Steam Machine initiative until next year in order to tighten up its gamepad. Now Valve has shown off the latest change to its pad, it has an analogue stick instead of a D-pad.

The original Steam controller featured two large touch pads in place of thumb sticks, a touch screen, ABXY buttons and a D-Pad:

This is the new design for the Steam controller, although it is important to note that it is still subject to change based on feedback from users and beta testers:

It looks like Valve is trying hard to innovate on the gamepad without resorting to incorporating design tips from the Xbox 360 controller, which is largely considered to be the best gamepad to date.

At the same time, Valve also needs to consider its legacy mode. The Steam controller was originally designed to be backwards compatible with the entire Steam catalog- including titles that don't ship with a controller profile or configuration, such as Civilization 5 or even The Witcher: Enhanced Edition.

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KitGuru Says: Valve is trying to innovate on the gamepad and it is being very transparent about it by showing us constant re-designs. Hopefully this will lead to greater community feedback and eventually, Valve will perfect its controller and vision for PC gaming in the living room. What do you guys think of the new design? I think the controller looks a bit odd with an analogue stick in-place of a D-pad but I suppose that shouldn't matter if it works well. 

Source: IGN

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