Yeah, it could be interesting, so I'd like have to try it.

But maybe it's just personal habit, but for me nothing beats the precision of mouse control. And I prefer desktop gaming because having to hold a controller feels like a waste of fingers. ;) I could potentially be pressing 10 buttons at a time instead of, at most, 6 (4 trigger buttons and two thumb pad buttons). :P

Muharharharharhrahrahrharhharhharharhhrhahhrhbrarbrbwrbwahrwhhaaaaaahahahbahbaha *sniff*
Seriously???
Bwhahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahwhahahahahahahahahahahaa

To be fair, most keyboards tend to roll over and die when you're holding down more than 3 buttons at once. Depends on which buttons, of course. At any rate, controller is much more tight and precise for many uses - it's quite apparent that it's been actually created for gaming. Most inputs via M+K are just binary, two-state. I love how videogames use pressure and position sensitive controls when using a controller.

I'm not interested in it, partly because I've never liked touchpads before and partly because the X and Y buttons are terribly placed, in a way that makes moving and pressing them at the same time impossible.

Yes. Keyboards are nice, but they are in dire need of an analogue input for games to control translational movement, and need to be able to handle at least any 4 buttons being held down at once. And have the numeric keypad moved to the left so that my mouse doesn't always bang into it. And have the left logo key moved up next to the escape button. Then I'd be happy :)

I wouldn't mind trying this if I get one of them free as a beta tester, but there's no way I'd pay for it. Trackpads have never been popular, not sure what Valve was thinking..

I'm intrigued by the controller. Touchpads aren't very nice to use but I don't know how they will feel on this with the haptic feedback and rings. These are things that require actual playing to know and that is something I think most of the people here lambasting it don't know either.

But problem with such games is that it's almost impossible to play them on TV even with proper controls. There is a lot of text and fonts are too small to read them from TV that is few meters away.

Ughhh....I use a mouse with my laptop because I cannot stand touchpads...I do not even like IPAD's because of using my thumbs...

To remain polite I am not going to say what I think of using track pad instead of proper analog sticks (let's just say that the guy who had that idea deserve to be exiled forever along with the other guy who said that the NDS touch screen was a worthy replacement for an analog stick).

But the thing that worry me the most is where they mention that some "exclusive" features of this controller will require and be integrated in Steam. That means that if a game is optimized (or even built for) this controller it might make it even more unlikely to ever have a DRM-free/Steam-free version available.

And even if the controller is "open" and it's possible to use all it's features without Steam; doing so would require development extra cost for the developers to implement the missing features which, once again, would make it even less likely for them to consider releasing a DRM-free version.

I am starting to wonder if it's not a tentative to add an new extra layer of DRM, as in : you cannot play the game without the Steam controller and steam controller only work if you play the game through Steam.

To be honest the fact that they claimed that every game (even old ones) will work on it and that people will be able to share their button layouts online got me quite interested. Manually configuring controllers has always been a pain in the ass before the default Xbox controller became supported, i would love to be able to download these layouts for older games without support for the Xbox controller. I want to see it before i judge it.
I doubt it. The Steam controller will probably be a niche thing. I can't see a big demand for it. That's too much of a conspiracy theory for me.

WTF?! Like, seriously, what the hell is that thing?
I love how they're making it seem like clickable trackpads are this new & ground-breaking thing (B/C we all know the sticks on MicroSoft's 360 controller aren't clickable, right?). Actually, they're making it seem like this is the second-coming of controllers. Now I may not be an ergonomics expert, but that thing does NOT look pleasant to hold. Further, it appears that each ring on those concave thingos look like a button(?) so idk where they get precise controls from.
I also love how they're like "You can play RTS on this thing". HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, no.
That screen is about the only good thing in this. But that thing is clickable, so, expect breakage.
It is also hackable, the hell does that mean? You can install your own macros?

Further, it appears that supporting a gamepad != supporting the Steam-troller (great, way to make my recently bought 360 gamepad obsolete)
But at the end of the day, my opinion is subject to change.

im still in shock, hours later!

I think some people knocking the trackpad idea off the bat need to understand that a controller has been in the works from Valve for a long time now (since March 2012 or earlier), so it's not like someone just got an idea to use trackpads and threw it out to the public a week later. They've been trying it out and testing it for who knows how long. Also the trackpads use haptic feedback, and they have two raised rings on each pad, so they aren't like regular trackpads you'd see on a laptop.

Have you ever tried using a thumbstick's middle click while it's tilted, like while you're trying to move your character? It's not that ergonomic.

you are starting to drift ever so slightly into tinfoil-hat territory now