Valve said it put a lot of effort into making sure the Steam Deck handheld gaming device won’t be affected by the same thumbstick drifting issues that have plagued modern controllers.
Drifting is a hardware problem that causes thumbsticks—also referred to as joysticks or analog sticks—to register movement even if the person holding the controller hasn’t touched them.
The issue can make it nearly impossible to play games that require precise inputs, and even in less intense titles, drift can make playing a game feel more like fighting a controller.
Unfortunately drift is a common problem: In the last few years Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft have all been targeted by class-action lawsuits related to drifting issues in their latest controllers.
Valve wants to avoid that problem with its new handheld gaming device. “We’ve done a ton of testing on reliability” for the Steam Deck, Valve hardware engineer Yazan Aldehayyat told IGN, “on all fronts really – and all inputs and different environmental factors and all that kind of stuff.”
Steam Deck designer John Ikeda also said the company “purposely picked something that we knew the performance of” because it “didn’t want to take a risk on that” with the new hardware.
Valve hasn’t shared many details about that hardware, however. All the company said on the Steam Deck website is that “best-in-class thumbsticks—with capacitive touch sensors built-in—provide a level of precision and comfort not found in other portable gaming devices.”
