Tag Archives: gaming controller

Steam Controller Returns with a Modern Redesign and Deeper Ecosystem Integration

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Steam surprised gamers with the announcement of three new products back in November 2025. Those were the Steam Machine gaming console, the Steam Frame wireless VR headset, and the brand new Steam Controller, marking the first-ever update in a decade. While the first two don’t yet have a clear release window, the Steam controller is almost here.

Priced at $99, the controller is scheduled to launch on May 4, putting it within immediate reach for gamers invested in the platform. However, details around pre-orders remain unclear, leaving some uncertainty about how quickly users will be able to secure one, subject to the RAM availability crisis. Regardless, the update represents a significant step forward from the original Steam Controller, which debuted in 2015 with a bold but divisive design that relied heavily on dual trackpads instead of traditional analog sticks.

Designer: Steam

This new iteration reflects a more balanced approach as Valve appears to have taken feedback from years of community use and criticism, integrating more familiar elements while retaining some of its experimental DNA. The repositioned trackpads remain part of the experience but are no longer the dominant input method. Instead, the inclusion of a standard D-pad and a second thumbstick brings the controller closer to conventional gamepads, making it more intuitive for a wider audience. The overall layout bears a strong resemblance to the Steam Deck, suggesting tighter integration with Valve’s existing ecosystem and improved compatibility with modern game design.

That shift in design is not just cosmetic; it addresses one of the biggest barriers of the original controller: accessibility. Earlier, the reliance on trackpads required a learning curve that many players found difficult to overcome. By contrast, this updated model blends precision controls with familiarity, making it more suitable for a broader range of genres, including fast-paced AAA titles that demand responsiveness and accuracy.

Image Credit: The Verge

Connectivity has also been modernized. The controller supports both wired and wireless play, offering flexibility depending on user preference. A USB-C port ensures faster and more reliable wired connections, while built-in Bluetooth expands compatibility across devices. A notable addition is the magnetic charging puck, which simplifies the wireless charging process and reduces the friction typically associated with battery management. These upgrades align the controller with current hardware standards, ensuring it feels contemporary rather than experimental.

However, there is a limitation that may affect its appeal beyond dedicated users. The controller is designed primarily for the Steam ecosystem, meaning its full functionality is likely restricted to Valve-supported platforms. While this ensures deep integration and optimized performance within Steam, it could limit adoption among gamers who prefer a more universal controller that works seamlessly across consoles and third-party platforms. Despite this, the new Steam Controller represents a thoughtful evolution rather than a radical reinvention.

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This Wireless Gaming Controller Splits Apart To Reveal Its Cartridge Slot

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Imagine a Nintendo Switch without a screen. Just two Joy-Cons that click together for wireless gaming. Now imagine that was it. That was the product. That’s what the Clicon gaming controller/console is pitching itself has. Handheld wireless gaming with anything you want as the screen. Split the controller apart and a cartridge fits into it, sandwiched between the two halves. Click the halves shut and you’ve effectively ‘loaded’ a game. Now pick a screen and game on it.

Spiritually, it feels exactly like what I’d expect from an indie company trying to be the next Nintendo. Out-lite the Switch Lite by ditching the screen altogether. The 2-part controller looks gorgeous, is portable, and ends up acting as a cartridge holder just by virtue of its design. Plus, the Duracell colorway definitely gives it a funky touch that’s hard to ignore!

Designers: Yasuaki Iijima & Jason Chen

This format is easily the first in the handheld gaming segment and that’s perhaps the one thing that excites me the most. Seeing a design so fairly radical it grabs your attention for a second, making you question how it works, and whether it would work, plausibly. The Clicon is still conceptual, obviously, but the designers are apparently working on a prototype.

The renders show a basic arcade-style cartridge that is housed inside the controllers, sitting just within their parting line and jutting out the middle the way your AirPods jut out when you flip the lid. This means no mano-a-mano gaming the way you would on a Switch. This entire thing is just one console, and doesn’t work when split apart. Lock it together and you’ve got something akin to the SNES controller with a pill-shaped design that feels decent enough to hold for hours at a stretch.

Meanwhile, as controls go, the Clicon packs them all, action buttons, arrow keys, two sets of shoulder buttons, the works. A home button and +/- buttons on the front, another transparent button on the top, and a USB-C port to charge the device as well as potentially stream content via cable. It would also make sense to assume that wireless streaming is a possibility.

Designers Yasuaki Iijima & Jason Chen are apparently working on a prototype. Their instagrams show 3D prints of mock-ups, even with bare-basics circuitry. It’s way too early to even ask for things like a timeline, specs, pricing, etc. but what we can do is judge the design for what it is. And hope that a feasibility run doesn’t result in too much of the design changing in the process! Heck, is it possible we see a ‘Nintendo Switch Lite Lite’ before GTA 6?

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After Losing His Arm in a Crash, He Built the Controller No One Made

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Gaming peripherals have come a long way in terms of specialization, from mechanical keyboards tuned for competitive play to mice with adjustable DPI profiles and ergonomic grips. What hasn’t kept pace is hardware designed for players who can only use one hand. Existing options like gaming keypads only get so far, and none of them truly replace the keyboard and mouse combination that PC gaming has relied on for decades.

Joe Tomasulo found that out the hard way. After losing his right arm in a motorcycle accident, he’d tried everything to get back to PC gaming as he knew it. He adapted a Razer Tartarus, strapped a wireless mouse to it, and tweaked the software bindings endlessly, but nothing ever felt right. Rather than keep settling for workarounds, he eventually built something purpose-made, and the result is the Ercham MK1.

Designer: Joe Tomasulo (Adventurous_Tie_9031)

The core idea is to put the keyboard and the mouse into the same device so that one hand handles everything at once. The Ercham MK1 sits flat on a surface, and an optical sensor on its underside lets the entire unit glide like a conventional mouse. The hand resting on top can simultaneously press keys, scroll, and execute game commands without ever having to reach for a second peripheral.

The key section features more than 30 programmable inputs arranged in a compact grid within natural finger reach. A strap system runs across the top of the device, keeping the hand firmly in place during longer sessions without requiring a tight grip. That matters for players with limited hand strength or residual limb use, where maintaining position on a mouse-like surface for extended periods would otherwise be exhausting and imprecise.

One of the more considered design decisions is that the Ercham MK1 works for either hand. Most gaming keypads aren’t built for both; they default almost universally to left-hand use, leaving right-handed amputees and players with right-side impairments without a natural fit. The fully ambidextrous layout, combined with angled control modules on both sides of the device, means the setup adapts to the user rather than the other way around.

Joe built the Ercham MK1 with amputees and stroke survivors specifically in mind, but its potential reach extends well beyond those two groups. Players dealing with RSI, brachial plexus injuries, and chronic pain face the same frustrations with two-device setups that don’t accommodate them, and so do power users and content creators. The programmable layout and macro support make it a genuinely useful tool for productivity work, not just gaming.

It’s come a long way from the hacked-together prototype he started with, and that origin gives it a kind of credibility that polished gaming accessories rarely have. It wasn’t designed in a studio; it was built by someone who genuinely needed it and couldn’t wait for anyone else to.

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McDonald’s Just Built a Gadget That Every Gamer Has Needed Forever

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Every gamer knows the panic. You’re mid-session, your team is deep into a raid, and your stomach is absolutely staging a coup. You ordered food 20 minutes ago, and now it’s sitting on the counter getting cold. The second you put down the controller to eat, you risk going AFK long enough to get kicked from the game, lose progress, or let down your whole squad. It’s one of those universal gaming frustrations that nobody has really addressed in a meaningful way. Until now, at least in Türkiye.

McDonald’s Türkiye just introduced “Archie,” a small controller peripheral that solves this exact problem. The device clips onto your gamepad and brings the analog sticks together, keeping your character in motion even when your hands are occupied with a burger instead of the buttons. The result? Your character keeps walking, you keep your spot in the session, and your food doesn’t go cold. It’s a stupidly simple fix to something that has plagued gamers for years.

Designer: McDonald’s Turkiye

The name “Archie” is a nod to the brand’s iconic Golden Arches, and the device’s shape reflects that. It’s a small arch-shaped piece that essentially bridges the two sticks on your controller. It’s not a Bluetooth gadget loaded with firmware updates or a subscription service. It’s just a clever piece of physical design that does exactly what it needs to do and nothing more. I genuinely appreciate that. Not every solution needs to be a tech startup. Sometimes the answer is a well-placed piece of plastic.

Archie comes bundled with what McDonald’s Türkiye is calling the “Pro Gamer Menu,” which includes a Big Mac, medium fries, a medium Coke, and 8-piece onion rings, available for a limited time through delivery orders. The branding is playful, the packaging presumably leans into the gamer aesthetic, and the whole campaign was developed by TBWA\Istanbul. It’s a smart marketing move, but calling it only marketing feels like underselling it. The gadget is actually useful, which is what separates this from your typical branded promotional gimmick.

Fast food and gaming have always had an unofficial relationship. Late nights, delivery orders, gaming fuel, you know the drill. Brands have tried to tap into that culture with discounts, streaming sponsorships, and limited-edition packaging, but most of it feels performative. This is the first time I’ve seen a fast food brand actually design something that speaks directly to the gameplay experience rather than just putting a controller graphic on a cup. That distinction matters.

The AFK problem is particularly brutal in competitive or online multiplayer games. Most games have inactivity timers that will boot a player for not doing anything for a certain period. Some games penalize you for leaving mid-match. Your teammates suffer. Your stats take a hit. Your character might just stand there in the open, practically begging to get eliminated. Gamers have been taping rubber bands around their controllers and propping up joysticks with coins for years. The fact that it took a fast food chain to come up with a legitimate, branded fix is equal parts amusing and oddly satisfying.

Does Archie work for every game? Probably not. Games that require active combat input, precise aiming, or frequent menu navigation will still need two hands. But for open-world games, exploration-heavy titles, or any session where moving in a general direction is enough to stay active, this is genuinely clever. It threads a needle that a lot of gaming accessories miss, which is solving a real problem without overcomplicating the solution.

I hope this doesn’t stay exclusive to Türkiye. The problem Archie addresses isn’t regional. Every gamer, everywhere, has eaten at their desk or on their couch while trying to keep an eye on the screen. McDonald’s stumbled onto something that is simple, charming, and genuinely useful, and that combination is rarer than it looks. Give us the Archie globally, please.

Image courtesy of: @technology

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Sony’s Latest PlayStation Patent Turns a DualSense and Your Phone Into One Gaming Controller

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Back in 2014, Sony shipped a small piece of plastic that clipped a phone onto a PS4 controller. It was limited to certain Xperia handsets, relied on Remote Play at a point when Remote Play was barely holding itself together over most home Wi-Fi networks, and it quietly disappeared without much fanfare. The idea of physically fusing your smartphone with your PlayStation controller got filed away as one of those concepts that sounded reasonable on paper and fell apart in practice. Sony moved on, and for a decade, so did everyone else.

A patent circulating this week suggests the concept never fully left. Sony’s new filing describes a smartphone mounted directly onto a DualSense controller, with the phone functioning as a live secondary input device. Its touchscreen, motion sensors, and hardware would all be available to developers as genuine control surfaces, feeding into the game in real time rather than simply mirroring it. That positions this as a meaningfully different idea from Remote Play, from the PS Portal, and from anything Sony has formally put in front of PlayStation players before.

Designer: Sony

The PS Portal, Sony’s dedicated remote play device launched in late 2023, is essentially a DualSense controller sliced in half with an 8-inch 1080p LCD placed in the middle. It streams games from your PS5 over Wi-Fi and does nothing else. You don’t own a PS5 running at home, the Portal becomes a paperweight. The patented phone mount concept flips that logic. Your smartphone becomes an extension of the controller’s input vocabulary, giving developers access to touch zones, gyroscope data, and potentially camera input without Sony needing to manufacture, stock, and sell another dedicated piece of hardware. Third-party phone mounts already exist for the DualSense and sell for as little as the equivalent of $10, so the mechanical attachment problem is solved. What Sony would be adding is first-party integration at the software and developer level, where the phone is recognized as part of the control scheme and games are built around it.

Patent Drawing from Sony’s filing

The market conditions in 2026 are dramatically different from the failed 2014 attempt. Fibre internet is widespread, Remote Play latency has improved significantly, and players already treat their phones as natural extensions of their gaming sessions. Controllers with phone clips are common enough in mobile gaming circles that the form factor no longer reads as awkward or experimental. Sony’s job would be convincing developers to design around a hybrid input model, which is a softer sell than asking players to spend $200 on dedicated streaming hardware with a narrow use case.

Sony patents ideas constantly, and most of them never see retail shelves. This particular concept feels more grounded than some of the company’s weirder filings because the infrastructure already exists, consumer behavior supports it, and the barrier to entry is lower than building new hardware from scratch. Whether it ships is still a gamble, but the logic behind it holds together better than it did a decade ago.

The post Sony’s Latest PlayStation Patent Turns a DualSense and Your Phone Into One Gaming Controller first appeared on Yanko Design.

Sony’s Latest PlayStation Patent Turns a DualSense and Your Phone Into One Gaming Controller

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Back in 2014, Sony shipped a small piece of plastic that clipped a phone onto a PS4 controller. It was limited to certain Xperia handsets, relied on Remote Play at a point when Remote Play was barely holding itself together over most home Wi-Fi networks, and it quietly disappeared without much fanfare. The idea of physically fusing your smartphone with your PlayStation controller got filed away as one of those concepts that sounded reasonable on paper and fell apart in practice. Sony moved on, and for a decade, so did everyone else.

A patent circulating this week suggests the concept never fully left. Sony’s new filing describes a smartphone mounted directly onto a DualSense controller, with the phone functioning as a live secondary input device. Its touchscreen, motion sensors, and hardware would all be available to developers as genuine control surfaces, feeding into the game in real time rather than simply mirroring it. That positions this as a meaningfully different idea from Remote Play, from the PS Portal, and from anything Sony has formally put in front of PlayStation players before.

Designer: Sony

The PS Portal, Sony’s dedicated remote play device launched in late 2023, is essentially a DualSense controller sliced in half with an 8-inch 1080p LCD placed in the middle. It streams games from your PS5 over Wi-Fi and does nothing else. You don’t own a PS5 running at home, the Portal becomes a paperweight. The patented phone mount concept flips that logic. Your smartphone becomes an extension of the controller’s input vocabulary, giving developers access to touch zones, gyroscope data, and potentially camera input without Sony needing to manufacture, stock, and sell another dedicated piece of hardware. Third-party phone mounts already exist for the DualSense and sell for as little as the equivalent of $10, so the mechanical attachment problem is solved. What Sony would be adding is first-party integration at the software and developer level, where the phone is recognized as part of the control scheme and games are built around it.

Patent Drawing from Sony’s filing

The market conditions in 2026 are dramatically different from the failed 2014 attempt. Fibre internet is widespread, Remote Play latency has improved significantly, and players already treat their phones as natural extensions of their gaming sessions. Controllers with phone clips are common enough in mobile gaming circles that the form factor no longer reads as awkward or experimental. Sony’s job would be convincing developers to design around a hybrid input model, which is a softer sell than asking players to spend $200 on dedicated streaming hardware with a narrow use case.

Sony patents ideas constantly, and most of them never see retail shelves. This particular concept feels more grounded than some of the company’s weirder filings because the infrastructure already exists, consumer behavior supports it, and the barrier to entry is lower than building new hardware from scratch. Whether it ships is still a gamble, but the logic behind it holds together better than it did a decade ago.

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$73 Lenovo Gamepad Turns the Legion Y700 Into a Switch Lite Rival

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Gaming tablets have always lived awkwardly between two worlds. Hold one flat, and it’s fine for casual sessions, but the moment a game demands precise analog input, touchscreen controls fall apart fast. Clip on a generic third-party gamepad, and the fit is never right, the latency is noticeable, and the whole thing looks assembled rather than designed. Lenovo’s Legion Gamepad G9 2026 takes a more deliberate approach, built as a dedicated accessory for one specific tablet.

The G9 2026 attaches to the newly announced Legion Y700 Gen 5 via its side-mounted USB-C port, converting the 8.8-inch Android tablet into something that handles more like a purpose-built gaming handheld. The wired connection keeps latency out of the equation entirely. The combination creates a form factor that puts it in the same general footprint as a Nintendo Switch Lite, just with a brighter screen behind it.

Designer: Lenovo

The input hardware sees meaningful changes over last year’s iteration. Most practically, the 4-direction D-pad is replaced with an 8-direction micro-switch alternative, an upgrade that fighting game and platformer players will immediately feel. All 12 switches across the face buttons, D-pad, and shoulder positions carry a 5 million-cycle rating. The ABXY layout follows Xbox conventions and supports Nintendo Switch/Xbox button remapping through the companion app.

Four touch-switch macro buttons on the rear can record sequences of up to 12 steps each. Eight of the main buttons support rapid-fire at up to 20 presses per second, with shortcut combinations for volume, lighting, and screenshots available without opening any menus. The “Extreme Control” companion app, Android only, handles deeper customization, including per-side RGB color, saturation, brightness, and animation speed. The Gamepad G9 2026 retails for ¥499 in China, about $73.

The quick-release protective shell built into the accessory has a large rear cutout that leaves the tablet’s heat vents and rear camera unobstructed. For a device running demanding content at sustained loads, any restriction to thermal airflow translates directly into performance throttling. That Lenovo addressed this at the accessory design level, rather than leaving the user to manage the consequence, suggests a more complete engineering process than most clip-on controllers go through.

The obvious limitation is also the one hardest to ignore. This controller only works with the Legion Y700 Gen 5, a beefed-up version of the Legion Tab Gen 5 that was just announced for the Chinese market. There’s no confirmed global availability for either the gamepad or the new tablet. The original G9 never left China, which makes the 2026 version most relevant to buyers already committed to that specific tablet and region. For everyone else, it’s a clear demonstration of what tablet gaming hardware can look like when the accessory and the device are actually built for each other.

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This Oware-inspired gaming controller replaces joysticks with a precision half-ball control system

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In an era where gaming peripherals are constantly evolving, designers are increasingly experimenting with new ways to rethink the relationship between the hand and the controller. Control PlusArc concept controller challenges the familiar joystick-and-button layout with a more tactile and deliberate approach to movement. Interestingly, this exploration arrives around the same time as other unconventional input devices, such as a mouse that doubles as a hidden game controller.

Control PlusArc is built around the idea that interaction should feel natural rather than mechanical. Instead of relying on standard analog sticks, the design introduces a semi-spherical control mechanism that encourages controlled, intentional movement. The controller’s overall oval form factor reflects this philosophy as well. Rather than forcing the user into rigid hand placements, the shape allows the device to sit comfortably within the palms, encouraging a continuous grip that feels fluid and stable during gameplay.

Designer: Kusi Boateng Arthur

The concept controller is inspired by Oware, known for its rhythmic and thoughtful movement of pieces across carved pits on a wooden board. Instead of mimicking the visual style of the game, the Control PlusArc borrows its philosophy of deliberate interaction. The controller’s oval shape emphasizes the organic contours of an Oware board, creating a tactile connection between hand movement and the act of play.

This influence becomes even more evident in the controller’s semi-ball control mechanism. Unlike a full trackball or freely spinning joystick, the half-ball structure introduces clear boundaries to movement. Players can roll the control surface in different directions, but the restricted geometry ensures that movement remains precise and predictable. This design choice prevents the kind of uncontrolled spinning that often accompanies traditional trackballs, instead reinforcing a sense of intentional navigation.

The half-ball interface effectively becomes the centerpiece of the interaction. Because the surface sits partially embedded in the controller body, it balances freedom and constraint. The user can perform quick directional adjustments while still maintaining tactile awareness of the controller’s limits. The result is a control system that feels less like manipulating a mechanical stick and more like guiding motion across a defined space.

Most modern gamepads still follow a layout popularized by early console designs: two sticks, directional inputs, and face buttons. By rethinking the primary control surface itself, this gaming controller questions whether future controllers might shift toward more tactile, sculptural interfaces that respond more intuitively to the way hands naturally move.

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This Wireless Mouse Splits in Half to Reveal a Hidden Game Controller

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Most people who game on a PC own two things that do roughly the same job at different times: a mouse for the desk and a gamepad for the couch. They live side by side, occasionally getting in each other’s way, and neither one is going anywhere. Pixelpaw Labs, a hardware startup from Bangalore, India, thinks that arrangement is wasteful and has built something to prove it.

The Phase is a wireless mouse that physically separates down the middle into two independent halves. Snapped together, it sits on a desk and works like a normal mouse. Pull it apart, and each half reveals a joystick, triggers, a D-pad on the left side, and face buttons on the right, a split gamepad that was hiding in plain sight the whole time.

Designer: Pixelpaw Labs

That missing scroll wheel is not an oversight. Fitting a traditional wheel in the center of the body would have made the split mechanism impossible, so Pixelpaw replaced it with a capacitive touch strip along the top of the left button. Flicking a finger across it scrolls through documents and web pages, with a glide feature that lets the momentum coast rather than stop abruptly. It’s a trade-off that works around a real geometric constraint.

As a mouse, the Phase is competitive on paper. A 16,000 DPI optical sensor pairs with a 1,000 Hz polling rate when connected via the included 2.4 GHz USB dongle. Bluetooth LE is available for convenience and multi-device pairing across up to three devices, though the polling rate drops to 125 Hz in that mode, a gap that matters in fast-paced PC games.

Up to 18 customizable buttons are mappable through the Pixelplay companion app, and a Layer button doubles each button’s function capacity without adding physical complexity. Battery life is rated at 72 hours per charge over USB-C, which is more than enough to outlast dedicated gaming sessions on either side of its personality.

The controller halves use mechanical tactile switches, which is more than most mobile gaming clip-ons bother with. Pixelpaw also has an accessory called the Phasegrip, a bracket that holds the two separated halves apart with a smartphone mounted in the center, turning the setup into a handheld console for mobile gaming. The Phase works across PC, Android, iOS, iPadOS, and ChromeOS, so switching between devices doesn’t require swapping hardware.

Everything shown so far is pre-production, and the company has been upfront that the final surface finish will differ. That’s a meaningful caveat for a product whose physical fit and feel will determine whether the concept actually holds up. Whether they’ll be able to deliver this Holy Grail of PC gaming, however, is the real question that can only be answered in time.

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This seahorse-inspired game controller concept is made for smaller hands

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Game controllers have not changed much in shape since the mid-1990s. They’re still two-handed symmetrical slabs built around adult grip dimensions, loaded with enough buttons to pilot a small aircraft. For a 10-year-old just getting into gaming, picking one up for the first time is a bit like being handed a TV remote and told to perform surgery, no sweat.

The concept is called LEVION, and it proposes a split controller: two separate units, one per hand, each sized for a pre-teen’s palm. It was designed as a rethink of the thumb stick from scratch, and the result looks like nothing in the current gaming peripheral market, which is mostly the point. And its inspiration comes from the most unlikely source you can imagine.

Designer: Vedika Bapat

The form comes from a seahorse, specifically its upright posture, curved spine, and ridged body. Those horizontal ridges, translated into a soft frill around the base of each unit, are the structural logic of the grip. A seahorse’s bony plates give it stability without bulk, and LEVION’s ridges do the same thing for a small hand holding a rounded object across an hour of gameplay. It’s biomimicry that connects cause to effect rather than borrowing a shape for decoration.

Each unit carries a joystick, three face buttons, and a shoulder button, arranged on a circular head that sits atop a curved hourglass body. The silhouette is wider at the head and base, pinched at the waist, giving the thumb a natural landing zone and keeping the unit from rotating mid-game. The sketch process started with a seahorse drawing annotated “grip inspiration” before moving through VR console proportions to arrive at this form, so the shape isn’t just decorative shorthand.

The colorways lean into the pre-teen audience: pink, mint green, sky blue, and lavender, all in a soft matte finish that reads more like a toy than a peripheral. That positioning is deliberate. Standard controllers signal seriousness and capability. LEVION signals approachability, which matters when the target user is still sorting out that the left stick moves the character and the right one moves the camera.

The honest question is one of input coverage. A standard PlayStation controller has two joysticks, a D-pad, four face buttons, four shoulder buttons, and several system controls. LEVION offers a joystick, three face buttons, and one shoulder button per hand. For casual and younger audiences, that might be exactly right. For anything more demanding, the math gets uncomfortable, and the concept doesn’t address how that gap closes when the pre-teen turns 13.

That’s worth taking seriously, but it doesn’t diminish what LEVION gets right in the space it occupies. The design’s own research board lists the Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons as a reference point, and the parallel is fair: the Joy-Con also split a standard controller into two smaller units and found an audience that didn’t know it needed that format. LEVION asks the same question one step earlier in the age range, in a form that a kid might actually want to reach for.

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