Valve released a new Steam Deck Beta update that includes a useful tweak to its Xbox controller detection.
There’s a bit of a problem with modern Xbox controllers and Bluetooth, where they won’t properly connect up with SteamOS / Linux unless they’ve gone through a firmware update. I’ve seen a lot of support requests about this issue over the years and so it’s good to see Valve highlight it directly. While it’s a Steam Deck Beta Client update, it should apply to other SteamOS devices too.
Agreed :)
And no matter how they do it, it’s clear they need to make changes; “everything is an Xbox controller and now just works” actually was pretty nice solution 20 years ago to fix the complicated mess that was PC gamepads with DirectInput, but it is very much outdated idea today.
Thankfully it appears changes are happening that might solve the issue in the near future, and all we can really do is wait and see.