Valve to lose $4 million for patent infringement with the Steam Controller

There's just something about a physical stick that can't be replaced with a touchpad.

My thoughts as well. The touchpad can be nice for a casual game, but trying to move or turn with it quickly and accurately in an intense boss fight (say for example Dark Souls 3, or Hellpoint) is impossible.

There's just something about a physical stick that can't be replaced with a touchpad.

My thoughts as well. The touchpad can be nice for a casual game, but trying to move or turn with it quickly and accurately in an intense boss fight (say for example Dark Souls 3, or Hellpoint) is impossible.

True enough, as much as playing a PC shooter with a stick is a subpar experience. I played all my shooters with the Steam Controller trackpad and Gyro. Best experience ever. The closest to K+M you can get.

Darksouls games are edge cases though. For other 3rd person games, it doesn't really matter (Witcher 3, Shadow of Mordor, Mad Max, Tomb Raider, etc...). It comes to personnal preferences... I often switch from stick to trackpad, depending on my mood at that moment.


Last edited by Mohandevir on 3 February 2021 at 2:32 pm UTC

And the back-paddle buttons are probably the most useless part of the Steam controller anyways...

The back-paddle is the only reason I bought the steam controller, I went from bronze to diamond on Rocket League with these buttons ahah. But I'm too poor to buy the xbox elite pro2 controller

$4 million does not seem like a lot of money to even bother suing over. Are we sure this is not a desperate company in financial trouble with over-inflated stock value?

Patent systems are very broken and need to be abolished.

For anyone interested, here's the book, where they show that in most fields (except chemistry/pharma), patents don't even work as they should according to the patent system itself. https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.27.1.3

The patent system itself isn't broken. The people running the patent system are. There are legitimate reasons for a patent. 'buttons on the bottom of the controller using a paddle / grip' shouldn't be a legitimate one, as it's an obvious one.
Patents should be for things that are not obvious.

Side note, apparently that's why we don't have any modern joysticks with actual force feedback beyond a rumble, because of patents. But considering it was an API+hardware work, I feel it is more of a legit one. Problem is they charged too much for too long and the support within games was pretty low because of it, so it stopped being a thing.

Now when you're talking about patenting and IP and copyright for software, there definitely are things there that should be changed / adjusted because they are terrible. Should be some things about 'if something becomes no longer profitable, it should be archived and become open/free.' instead of copyright holding over things for 70+years...

$4 million does not seem like a lot of money to even bother suing over. Are we sure this is not a desperate company in financial trouble with over-inflated stock value?

Ha, like Gamestop?

And the back-paddle buttons are probably the most useless part of the Steam controller anyways...

The back-paddle is the only reason I bought the steam controller, I went from bronze to diamond on Rocket League with these buttons ahah. But I'm too poor to buy the xbox elite pro2 controller

I have a Thrustmaster eSwap Pro, and it took me a while to get used to NOT hitting those bottom buttons on it, though it also would help if I could remember which buttons mapped to the top buttons on that controller!

By the way, it's an excellent controller with one of the best D-Pads I've ever used!

Another demonstration of how broken the patent system is. There nothing in that patent that isn't entirely trivial. Basically "let's put a button where an unused finger rests". I'm surprised that Valve's lawyers didn't manage to get this thrown out because I highly doubt that this is original.

Totally agree. It doesn't make sense.
Anyways, I have 3 Steam controllers. They are awesome, I can even play some FPS games on it and the experience is good. I hope they will still support the controller with softwares like the one in the big picture mode and also I hope the SC controller app will be still maintained.

And the back-paddle buttons are probably the most useless part of the Steam controller anyways...

The back-paddle is the only reason I bought the steam controller, I went from bronze to diamond on Rocket League with these buttons ahah. But I'm too poor to buy the xbox elite pro2 controller

It isn't worth it anyway.

And the back-paddle buttons are probably the most useless part of the Steam controller anyways...

The back-paddle is the only reason I bought the steam controller, I went from bronze to diamond on Rocket League with these buttons ahah. But I'm too poor to buy the xbox elite pro2 controller

It isn't worth it anyway.

Damn, beaten by a 50€ controller who lasted me 2 years...

Patent systems are very broken and need to be abolished.

For anyone interested, here's the book, where they show that in most fields (except chemistry/pharma), patents don't even work as they should according to the patent system itself. https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.27.1.3

The patent system itself isn't broken. The people running the patent system are. There are legitimate reasons for a patent.

No. You obviouly did not even read the summary of the Paper. It's broken according to what the patent system says it should work like. It's only a huge tax on invention. I'll quote: "there is no empirical evidence that they serve to increase innovation and productivity,".

And that's only according to the patent system itself. If we take adverse effects regarding health or poverty into account, it looks even worse.

And the back-paddle buttons are probably the most useless part of the Steam controller anyways...

The back-paddle is the only reason I bought the steam controller, I went from bronze to diamond on Rocket League with these buttons ahah. But I'm too poor to buy the xbox elite pro2 controller

I have a Thrustmaster eSwap Pro, and it took me a while to get used to NOT hitting those bottom buttons on it, though it also would help if I could remember which buttons mapped to the top buttons on that controller!

By the way, it's an excellent controller with one of the best D-Pads I've ever used!

Didn't know about this controller, seems really nice. I don't know what's better between this one and scuff gaming's one.

So I'd have to say that, given the existing legal framework, patent system and so on, this is a fair cop.
There was a patent, they knowingly infringed on it, and they shelled out a cost-of-doing-business 4 million bucks for it.

That said, it's a stupid patent.

And beyond that, the patent system is . . . only insane if one imagines its purpose to have anything to do with increasing innovation. Who knows, maybe that was true 200 years ago. But the modern patent system has been carefully designed, increment after increment, to do something very different: Siphon more money and power to the already wealthy and powerful--create barriers to entry, encourage monopolies, oligopolies and cartels, and enable price-gouging based on artificial scarcity.

Spoiler, click me

Note that in the modern patent system, inventors never patent anything. Corporations with teams of lawyers patent things, the inventors working for them who actually dreamed up the innovation hold zero "intellectual property". Even if inventors were independent, they don't have the amounts of cash needed to successfully file a patent, let alone defend it. Also note that a lot of the innovation which is then patented by corporations was actually innovated by public sector researchers; the profits were then privatized. For instance, the messenger RNA technology used by Pfizer to create their new-type vaccine which they have patented, was invented at the US National Institute of Health, doubtless building on a bunch of other public sector research conducted worldwide and published in scholarly journals. But the National Institute of Health ain't seeing any cash from it. This is normal; the whole point of the exercise is for the Pfizer types to make money.

can't even buy the damn thing anymore.

I'm willing to sell mine. It's lightly used, but in good condition.

I will take even a more refined Steam controller for 2nd gen. With focus on software profiles and such. Imagine it to be even better fit and comfortable, and when you plug the controller it automatically connects to Emulator and the game you are running and sets up the best possible config for you. That would be amazing i.e software improvements.

I'm willing to sell mine. It's lightly used, but in good condition.

Three fiddy!


Last edited by Linuxwarper on 3 February 2021 at 10:39 pm UTC

Scumbags. My Faith In The System looses 1000 points with stories like these.

Of course, the copyright and patent systems have become systems of oppression and nothing more than more "Control".

It's just another example of a "good idea" of protecting inventers taken beyond too far going horribly horribly wrong.

Patents = cancer. It's time to shut them down. You can't copyright an idea.

So I'd have to say that, given the existing legal framework, patent system and so on, this is a fair cop.
There was a patent, they knowingly infringed on it, and they shelled out a cost-of-doing-business 4 million bucks for it.

That said, it's a stupid patent.

And beyond that, the patent system is . . . only insane if one imagines its purpose to have anything to do with increasing innovation. Who knows, maybe that was true 200 years ago. But the modern patent system has been carefully designed, increment after increment, to do something very different: Siphon more money and power to the already wealthy and powerful--create barriers to entry, encourage monopolies, oligopolies and cartels, and enable price-gouging based on artificial scarcity.

Spoiler, click me

Note that in the modern patent system, inventors never patent anything. Corporations with teams of lawyers patent things, the inventors working for them who actually dreamed up the innovation hold zero "intellectual property". Even if inventors were independent, they don't have the amounts of cash needed to successfully file a patent, let alone defend it. Also note that a lot of the innovation which is then patented by corporations was actually innovated by public sector researchers; the profits were then privatized. For instance, the messenger RNA technology used by Pfizer to create their new-type vaccine which they have patented, was invented at the US National Institute of Health, doubtless building on a bunch of other public sector research conducted worldwide and published in scholarly journals. But the National Institute of Health ain't seeing any cash from it. This is normal; the whole point of the exercise is for the Pfizer types to make money.

The other shit thing that happens is companies buy other companies solely for their patents and then lay off all of the engineers that developed whatever tech was patented. Often times with the sole intention of burying that thing so that they don't have competition of their own product / patent.

There's just something about a physical stick that can't be replaced with a touchpad.

My thoughts as well. The touchpad can be nice for a casual game, but trying to move or turn with it quickly and accurately in an intense boss fight (say for example Dark Souls 3, or Hellpoint) is impossible.

I've finished DS3 recently using the Steam Controller. Practice makes perfect.

who have a patent for a game controller that has back paddles

Pretty sure this also includes Xbox controllers.

Wonder if they have the balls to sue MS.