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New: Tell Steam If Your Game Supports DualShock or DualSense Controllers

Thick Thighs Save Lives

NeoGAF's Physical Games Advocate Extraordinaire
This is aimed at game devs, but I found the part about PlayStation controllers market share massively expanding in the past 5 years rather interesting. Considering that 27% of controller sessions are now via PlayStation controllers, I'm hopeful that all AAA studios that decide to put their games on Steam will begin to offer full support for both Xbox and PlayStation controllers and making that visible on the product's page as in the example shown below.

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"But recently we've seen the most growth among players using various types of PlayStation controllers. For example, in 2018, PlayStation controllers comprised about 11% of controller sessions. Fast-forward to today and we now see 27% of controller sessions being played with PlayStation controllers."

Steam will soon start showing this information on store pages and in the client

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The Steam store and desktop client will soon be able to help players find games that support DualSense or DualShock controllers.
If your game supports either of these devices, you can now enter that information in the Steamworks 'edit store' section for your app.

Steamworks has a new controller-support questionnaire for developers to better describe the devices supported by the game. If your game plays well with a DualShock or DualSense Controller (PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 respectively), you can now specify that information within Steamworks.


This is the first step toward helping players find games that support the most commonly-used PC video game controllers. Starting in October, we'll show this information to players in the Steam store and Steam desktop client.

Here are more details on this new level of support.

First, describe your games' controller support
As part of the 'edit store' section for each game in Steamworks, you'll find a new questionnaire to describe your controller support

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Through this questionnaire, you will self-identify the level of controller support that your game handles. You'll be presented with a set of criteria and options for describing whether your game meets that criteria.

For now, the results of this survey will do two things:

  1. It will output results that are displayed using our existing options on the store. This generally boils down to just "Full Controller Support" or "Partial Controller Support" with special cases for games that require controllers or only work with keyboard/mouse. If you already had controller support indicated on your store page, you may not see anything change immediately on your store page.
  2. It will also output a preview within Steamworks of what the future store display will show for the game. This will distinguish between full and partial Xbox, DualShock, and DualSense Controller support.

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Important note:
Support for DualShock and DualSense controllers isn't automatically assumed if you already have good Xbox controller support. These two PlayStation controllers are pretty different, so if you haven't done specific work to support them, then you almost certainly do not have support for those controllers.


Starting In October, New display and filters roll out to players
Once game developers have had a chance to review the new controller-support questionnaire and enter updated controller support, we'll start showing players this new information. So starting in early October, we'll roll out some updates to the Steam store and the Steam desktop client to expose this new information. This update will include the following:
  • Updates to store page area that displays controller support to also specify the level of PlayStation controller usage
  • Updates to some browse pages to make it easier for players to find new games that support their controller device well
  • Updates to the Steam Desktop client to indicate a game in your library has PlayStation controller support
  • Updates to the Steam Desktop client to make it more clear when a game requires use of a controller to play


Why Controller Support Is Important
Over the past few years it has become more and more common for players to enjoy games on Steam using a controller rather than strictly keyboard/mouse. In fact, since 2017,
Steam has seen over 87 Million users play at least once using a controller. Among those players, the majority (~69%) have used some version of Xbox controllers, with the remaining being a mix of PlayStation controllers, Switch Pro Controllers, and hundreds of other devices.

But recently we've seen the most growth among players using various types of PlayStation controllers. For example, in 2018, PlayStation controllers comprised about 11% of controller sessions. Fast-forward to today and we now see 27% of controller sessions being played with PlayStation controllers.


How to Support PlayStation Controllers (and many more)
Supporting PlayStation controllers in a game on your own can be challenging, so Steamworks provides some streamlined APIs to help. If you have an existing game with good Xbox Controller support, you might just need to add calls to get the right glyphs to show for players using a PlayStation Controller. If that's the case, check out our Steam Input Gamepad Emulation - Best Practices documentation. Or, if you are starting your controller support from scratch, we've got great APIs that make it easy to support hundreds of different devices with one integration. For an overview on Steam Input support, please check out documentation here: https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/steam_controller
 

Holammer

Member
Good! Hope this encourages developers to use Dualsense's features.
Got one recently and it really was transformative in Ratchet and Clank, Sackboy and Returnal (omg, rain!). Turns out Switch emulators support the features! Sadly HD Rumble is a piece of poo-poo. Only game that actually used it well was Golf Story. Sony's support is on another level compared with Nintendo.
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
Just use DS4Windows
The thing with Steam is that you don't need extra software to use your controller properly. I used a generic controller, then a Switch Pro Controller for years without any problem on Steam due to that. Then Game Pass came out and I couldn't use those controllers without opening an app each time I wanted to play, so I got an Xbox controller. Easily Steam makes controller users lives easier.
 

T-Cake

Member
Good! Hope this encourages developers to use Dualsense's features.
Got one recently and it really was transformative in Ratchet and Clank, Sackboy and Returnal (omg, rain!).

Did you play those three on PC with the DualSense?
 

Kuranghi

Member
Works fine with bluetooth

Hopefully more games add PS button prompts.

Agreed, though DS4Windows still far superior imo, because if a game only supports DS4/DS or gyro/haptics when wired then DS4Windows allows that to be done via Bluetooth as well by emulating the Dualsense as a... DS4/DS. I have no detailed explanation for why that works but who cares it works ha.

Plus you can add some of the unique Dualsense features to any game even if devs didn't, like half presses or resistance. Maybe even the resistance and then sudden pop release thing, like sniper rifles use in PS5 games.

Afaik no vibrating trigger effects yet though, I haven't really delved into the menus in a good few updates to see, but I do do "half press trigger to aim and full press to fire" like a gamecube controller on some games.
 

Sleepwalker

Member
Agreed, though DS4Windows still far superior imo, because if a game only supports DS4/DS or gyro/haptics when wired then DS4Windows allows that to be done via Bluetooth as well by emulating the Dualsense as a... DS4/DS. I have no detailed explanation for why that works but who cares it works ha.

Plus you can add some of the unique Dualsense features to any game even if devs didn't, like half presses or resistance. Maybe even the resistance and then sudden pop release thing, like sniper rifles use in PS5 games.

Afaik no vibrating trigger effects yet though, I haven't really delved into the menus in a good few updates to see, but I do do "half press trigger to aim and full press to fire" like a gamecube controller on some games.
I actually just noticed I quoted the wrong post, my bad! I meant to reply to RoboFu RoboFu And his usb only comment.

I do have DS4 for those pesky unsupported games, theres also another similar app, dualsense something.
 

Kuranghi

Member
The thing with Steam is that you don't need extra software to use your controller properly. I used a generic controller, then a Switch Pro Controller for years without any problem on Steam due to that. Then Game Pass came out and I couldn't use those controllers without opening an app each time I wanted to play, so I got an Xbox controller. Easily Steam makes controller users lives easier.

My experience has been that Steam input doesn't make DS4/DS work wirelessly sometimes or limits features when wireless and also doesn't help for games that don't support PS controllers.

Unless I've missed how Steam Input works and the latter above is possible, I haven't used it for more than 10 times in various games before going back to DS4Windows.

Even if it is that still leaves the missing effects without wired issue, I quite like haptics/rumble but I suppose if you dislike that then Steam Input is much easier to just plug and play. I also like the customization of DS4Windows, it allows you to fix broken analogue stick input, like in Dead Space 1, by setting a negative deadzone, or just improve shitty ones, which are in a lot of games, thank god for that.
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
My experience has been that Steam input doesn't make DS4/DS work wirelessly sometimes or limits features when wireless and also doesn't help for games that don't support PS controllers.

Unless I've missed how Steam Input works and the latter above is possible, I haven't used it for more than 10 times in various games before going back to DS4Windows.

Even if it is that still leaves the missing effects without wired issue, I quite like haptics/rumble but I suppose if you dislike that then Steam Input is much easier to just plug and play. I also like the customization of DS4Windows, it allows you to fix broken analogue stick input, like in Dead Space 1, by setting a negative deadzone, or just improve shitty ones, which are in a lot of games, thank god for that.
Oh, idk about DS4, I just plug any controller and Steam Controller takes care of it. With Switch Pro Controller it's flawless, you can even use the gyro, invert face buttons, etc.

And AFAIK you can adjust deadzones on it but maybe that's not what you're looking for.
 

Kuranghi

Member
Oh, idk about DS4, I just plug any controller and Steam Controller takes care of it. With Switch Pro Controller it's flawless, you can even use the gyro, invert face buttons, etc.

And AFAIK you can adjust deadzones on it but maybe that's not what you're looking for.

If its USB wired then I'd say don't bother with DS4Windows and use Steam Input but I "need" Bluetooth because the PC is on the other side of room next to my TV. Bit inconvenient to have wires trailing across the living room.
 
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