Valve revealed Steam Controller today, a controller for its living room PC-based game console initiative. It's the third announcement this week from Valve, following reveals of SteamOS and Steam Machines on Monday and Wednesday (respectively). The controller is shaped like a standard game console controller, but in place of thumbsticks there are two clickable trackpads. Valve's saying that the dual trackpads provide resolution that "approaches that of a desktop mouse," making previously PC-only games playable on a couch.

In the middle of the controller is a "high-resolution" touch screen (also clickable) that enables both control and navigation. "Players can swipe through pages of actions in games where that's appropriate. When programmed by game developers using our API, the touch screen can work as a scrolling menu, a radial dial, provide secondary info like a map or use other custom input modes we haven't thought of yet," the controller's announcement page says. There are also haptic sensors all over the controller, which offer "super-precise" haptic feedback to players -- they're in both trackpads on the front, as well as in the shoulder buttons and around the rear grips. Valve says that these sensors not only relay physical information to players, but also "play audio waveforms and function as speakers."

Like any gamepad, the Steam Controller has a handful of buttons as well: 16 in total, according to Valve.