Not only will the new Steam Controller scream at you but it can play tunes as well
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/05/not-only-will-the-new-steam-controller-scream-at-you-but-it-can-play-tunes-as-well/Open linkView original on lemmy.ziphttps://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/05/not-only-will-the-new-steam-controller-scream-at-you-but-it-can-play-tunes-as-well/Open linkView original on lemmy.zip
I hope the first song that gets replicated is the turret opera from portal 2
Is this close enough?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8gbosBxqiYY
dyingturret.wav
am I the only one who thinks "screaming" or "playing tunes" aren't features that should belong to a fucking controller?
They're done with haptics, apparently. Do you think haptics don't belong to a controller? It costs you nothing for these to be in the controller and you'll personally also never actually see them.
This is a "QUIT HAVING FUN" moment
all my controllers have had haptics, yet none of them ever played tunes because... how can I say? they were controllers.
The reason none of your haptic controllers played tunes is because the programmers never got to have fun with it, not from a lack of ability.
Go look at 3D printers, most of them use their motors to make little beeps and jingles as feedback to the user. I even have custom gcode that gets added to every print so a tune is played when the print is done. That's actually useful because I don't need to wonder whether it's done and check on it like a pot that's about to boil
and what's the utility in a controller?
I'm curious what your stance on RGB keyboards, mice, and other peripherals are. What is the utility there? Do you have different colored clothing? If so why? What is the utility there?
we could spend the whole day talking about my opinions about every unrelated thing that comes to your mind, but I think we should stay on topic here.
I mean, I understand that you don't have much of an argument to be made, but that's not a good reason for rambling about random stuff.
My point is that we all enjoy things that otherwise have "no utility". I just found it amusing that you can't wrap your head around why people would enjoy a novelty feature for a specific gaming controller.
Wiimote played sounds, and from what I saw online, that shitty little speaker gave a lot of memories to kids (especially the Smash Bros Brawl sounds)
lol imagine having memories of your controller making sounds.
I'd rather have memories of the games.
now imagine this: both are possible
I never questioned that, it's just that it's sad to even think that this feature will be a good memory for someone in the future. I really hope they'll have way better things to remember than the Steam controller screaming.
My DualSense controller has a literal speaker in it, and lots of PS5 games use it. Are you mad at that too?
The fucking original Wii remotes had speakers in it and played all kinds of sounds playing Wii Sports lmao
no one here is mad except the Valve fanboys.
also I got a DualSense too and yes, I think it's one of the most useless things (together with the microphone) that I've seen on a controller.
Older controllers probably didn't have haptics that could be controlled to playback sound files. Once you have that though, it's relatively free to add. It's not a feature the controller is sold on, because it doesn't really matter, but it is a cool bonus to add for free, and let's the devs have a little fun.
yet it's full of articles about it.
There's articles on all kinds of things. That doesn't mean the marketing team behind the product was promoting it. If that were the case then there'd never be negative articles either.
There's articles about this because it's funny. It's also not something you'd see from, for example, Microsoft or Sony, because there's too much corporate control. It shows the devs at Valve get to mess around and have fun with what they're making. They're making something that they want, not just something the corporate overlords dictated.
I bet you hate floppotron too
for people like me who have never heard of it:
no, I definitely do not hate such a cool thing.
So why are you against the steam controller making sounds? It doesn't have a speaker, the noises it makes are from the haptic feedback. It's the same principle
lol
because it's a fucking controller maybe?
Why does that matter?
because, you know, it's a controller.
The cool thing that you don't hate, up above, is a bunch of floppy drives and flatbed scanners. They also aren't supposed to make tunes, but they do, and it's cool.
So?
Yes.
it seems you are wrong.
Nah.
Yep, but there is no need to cry for it, darling.
See above.
ahahahah I really triggered you fanboys huh?
that's nice.
Yeah, everyone else is crashing out, it's not you. You're acting totally sane.
Who's crying lol
you people have flooded this thread with tears bro.
Don't agree, takes away nothing to keep it.
takes time to make it though and they are even advertising it, as if we are so dumb that we should care about this more than the proper controller features.
Steam hasn't advertised this easter egg at all, but have advertised all the "proper" features. The only people mentioning this are fans and journalists, many of which have already gone over a normal review of the controller, and just like to call out a fun easter egg when they see one.
right, because no such articles have ever been advertising. we are so lucky to have only objective and impartial reviews of products everywhere in the internet.
it's pretty telling of the userbase that all news you read are about this though. explains why you all got butthurt.
Sure, I don't doubt that steam pays for reviews and news coverage. But I'm going off of statements put out by the company, because if I don't, I'd just be speculating.
Again with your pointless rage bait. That's not an actual argument, you are just telling a lie as though it's a fact. That's what ragebaiters do, that's what bots do. I don't actually consume game journalism at all, the only place I will see it is when I read a headline on Lemmy. I haven't even read the article this post links to.
you are saying you don't read such articles but also state that I'm lying?
alrighty!
lol You've now slipped into the most pitiful version of rage bait, the kind that ignores the comment you are responding to. You got me, I was wrong. You aren't a bot, you're a happy, successful, self-actualized person.
I'm confused about why you don't like fun things that take nothing away from the promised experience
have you used the controller already? because supposedly this won't take away anything from the experience.
The Wilhelm scream playing on the Steam Big Picture mode home screen a small percentage of the times you drop the controller seems like a harmless feature, especially since it didn't take adding any parts that weren't already being used for things players actually want
do players also want their controller to "play tunes", because I haven't seen the DualSense users giving a fuck about such a thing.
The dual sense speaker is really nice. I take you don't have it.
and you are mistaken, because that's my current controller.
Weird your opinion is based on what others think and not your experience.
You don't seem at all unhinged, so I guess I'll trust your word art face value.
huh?
I think you misread my comment.
That's not an official feature, just a third party project that uses the vibration motors to play music. Sometimes people do things just for the sake of entertainment. The way you write suggests you are a bot or rage baiting, so I can understand why you may not know about basic human emotions
"he doesn't like what we like, must be a bot"
anyway, the scream is an official "feature" and, as an intelligent being, I am less entertained by it than I am by using the controller as a controller while playing games.
you do you though.
First, it's not that you dislike something that makes you a bot, it's that you are so unreasonably angry about an easter egg.
Second, it's not that you dislike something that makes you a rage baiter, it's that your arguments don't make sense. You are less entertained by a scream than using the controller as a controller? So is everyone. No one is saying this is the most fun or best feature of the controller, so you aren't actually saying anything that goes against the people that like the scream.
"They got mad because I think it's a ridiculous feature" Actually, I'm not mad about that. I also think it's a ridiculous feature. There's no argument there either.
If you don't like the scream, that's okay. I know it's not for everyone, and many people won't even hear it. But to say that steam is pushing this as an advertisement for the controller is misleading. To say that they should have just focused on making the controller a good controller is misleading. I have the controller. It's a great controller. It has more features than other controllers, and those features were executed well. I bought it before anyone posted anything about the scream.
You say you use a dual shock controller. That has a speaker on it. If unnecessary features make you this irrationally angry, I'm shocked that you would prefer a controller that they had to add in a whole extra physical component to the controller just to give it a pointless feature, over a controller with an easter egg using the hardware that already contributes to the actual experience of using the controller.
Except you don't care. About either of these things. At least not to the extent that you are putting on. You are just trying to make people upset as a ragebaiter, or trying to spread unnecessary discourse about a product as a bot.
you are completely brain dead if you think I'll read this wall of text.
Why bother starting discussions on the internet if you're just going to bow out as soon as you're called on your shit? That's not how rage bait is supposed to work, I thought you were good at this
Who exactly are you arguing against then? I haven't seen anyone even suggest that they disagree with what you just said
well they obviously can't, they just got mad because I think it's a ridiculous feature.
meanwhile I am enjoying this weird situation, which also made me realize what kind of fanbase Valve has.
Why are you equating engagement with anger? I ain't mad, I'm just fascinated.
For context, the screaming part is an Easter egg that plays a Wilhelm Scream if you drop the controller.
yeah, I am aware of that, but it doesn't change my opinion.
it makes it worse maybe.
I agree, it definitely makes your opinion worse lol
HAHA! GOTTEM!
Thanks bro
Sound is just vibrations. If your vibration controls are good enough, they can reproduce sounds too. Sure, they "wasted" time writing software to do it, but it's insignificant. The hardware is there anyway. They might as well include it as a feature.
I mean, they could also make a detachable fallic extension so you can also stimulate yourself. after all the vibrations are there so they might as well include this other feature.
I'd even argue it would be more useful than what they did, but that's a matter of personal tastes.
Definitely more useful, but it requires adding something. This feature doesn't. It's already there.
oh, you think the time to do that is significant?
what a disappointment...
I think it isn't significant. I assume you made a mistake in your comment.
But yeah, it probably took very little time. The software already exists. I'm not sure if they used an existing library or wrote their own, but it isn't complicated. Not to mention, I'm pretty sure the original Steam Controller did this too, so it was written then, not now, if they wrote it themselves.
I meant the dildo add-on.
Me too. It'd be more useful than the sound playback. It requires adding something that isn't there though. This doesn't. I don't understand what you don't get about this.
They released all the CAD files so the modding community can do it themselves.
nice, they thought about everything!
now the only thing left to see is if it is a good controller, but all in all who cares when we got so many features already, am I right?
Probably why they weren't advertised by Valve, and are more just easter eggs
because you are sure people found them out by themselves?
I wouldn't be surprised they did not.
I don't know why everyone is getting so weirdly defensive about this and downvoting you for stating your opinion.
I agree. It's like the PlayStation controllers that play little sounds from their shitty little speaker that sounds like it was ripped from a cheap children's toy. It doesn't add immersion, it adds annoying. I'd hate to be hearing little dings and noises from my controller while I'm playing a game. That's why I have speakers.
After reading through a lot of the comments:
Because he's coming off oh so very condescending and espousing the SAME 'level' of opinion as everyone else but getting combative/rude sith his responses being called out for having the same objective merit.
You can have an opinion. BUT:
"Why don't you like this?" "Because it's a controller, duh" "But things can have extra little things in them" "It's useless, it's a controller. Lame of you to like it"
People here in Lemmy often seem to have this problem where they communicate EXACTLY over text how they might in real life, but not realize that 0% of their non-verbals are coming through and so if they don't change the writing style it just comes off prick-ish and argumentative
If it were used to play game sounds, yeah, that's stupid. It's just the vibration motors with software controls that can replay the same vibrations of a sound file. They are not high enough quality to be used for game audio. They are good enough to play a wakeup/shutdown sound (optional), or other things that just add bonuses to the controller. It's free, assuming your haptics were good enough.
fandoms are weird.