Valve’s new Steam Controller arrives with a clear Steam Link angle for mobile players

Valve’s new Steam Controller is now part of the 4 May hardware conversation, launching on Steam at $99. While it is not a mobile-only device, it matters for mobile players because Steam Link has become one of the easiest ways to turn a phone into a portable PC gaming screen. The controller is clearly aimed first at Steam and PC players, but the mobile use case is simple: pair the controller, stream from your PC and use the phone as the display.

That is where third-party accessories become important, because a phone clipped above a controller feels much closer to a handheld than balancing a device on a desk. For GameForce Mobile readers, the main takeaway is that the line between handheld PC gaming, cloud play and mobile screens keeps getting blurrier. A phone is no longer just the device running the game locally. It can also become the screen, network endpoint and portable interface for a larger gaming setup.