At the Steam Dev Days event, Valve engineer Jeff Bellinghausen revealed that the company is looking to introduce native support for the PlayStation 4’s DualShock 4 controller into Steam. An upcoming update to Steam’s controller API will bring customization options for the PS4 controller.
Adding PS4 integration shouldn’t be too difficult considering the Steam Controller has similar functionality, such as the gyro and the touchpad. Bellinghausen shared the announcement during his presentation:
Soon we will be shipping an update that adds full configurability to controllers other than the Steam Controller. This means that players can pair their PS4 controller directly to their PC and use all the configurability options available to the Steam Controller, including use of the PS4 touchpad and gyro.
Lars Doucet, developer of Defender’s Quest, had more details on how the integration will work:
Believe it or not, when you use the PS4 Controller through the Steam API, it’s exactly the same as a Steam Controller. You make the exact same API calls, you only get actions, not inputs, and the Steam API takes care of everything.
Now, why start with the PS4 controller? Well, not only is it a really nice, high quality controller, but it’s also got a gyro and a touchpad, so it’s got a lot of overlapping functionality with the Steam Controller. Also, existing native support for the PS4 controller on the PC is a bit weak; in this case Steam itself is communicating directly with the device so everything that’s nice and reliable.
Similar support for other controller models is coming, but Valve isn’t ready to announce any devices or dates for those just yet.
With the Xbox ruling the PC controller market, it’ll be interesting to see the kind of changes this integration would bring.
Source: Gamasutra
