14 DAY TRIAL // The Steam Controller seems to be much more successful than the Steam Machines, probably because it's so different. Valve has provided us with a glimpse of the manufacturing process, which just goes to show that they are really serious about this endeavor.
Valve's plans are never transparent. In fact, the company is very shy about its plans and we don't usually get the full picture of what they want to do until a few years have passed. The perfect example is the launch of the Steam platform.
Everyone hated Steam when they launched it and tying Half-Life 2 to it seemed liked suicide. Back then, you could still buy a disc with the game, even if it was published by Valve. You needed Steam to activate it, and it had to remain open during gameplay. It was madness.
It turns out that Valve had some good plan to back up the Steam launch, and they put a lot of faith in it. Despite all the criticism, they knew they had a good product and kept on improving it. The same seems to be happening with the Steam Controller.
Valve builds the Steam Controller in the United States
One of this first things I noticed when I got the Steam Controller was the fact that on the side of the box it says Made in the USA. That's not all that common, especially for cheap products and there is no mistake about it, the Steam Controller is really cheap if we take into consideration all the features it brings.
Valve chose to share a short video showing the building process for the Steam Controller, and if we take a closer look past the obvious cool stuff (the robots building the controller have Aperture written in the side), we can also draw a serious conclusion.
Given the size of that assembly line, Valve has big plans for the Steam Controller. It doesn't seem to be something that will be phased out if it doesn't have huge sales. The company is playing the long game, and the controller is here to stay.
Enjoy this oddly satisfying video of the Steam Controller being built.
