Last week, Steam added support for Nintendo Online classic controllers. What it didn’t have was support for the Nintendo Switch’s default Joy-Con controllers. A beta update has now changed that.
A Steam client update which entered beta on August 4th “added support for Nintendo Joy-Con controllers, both individually as a mini-gamepad and combined into pairs.” The beta update also improves support for the classic controllers.
The Joy-Cons are wonderfully versatile controllers, able to click together into a larger gamepad, to be used separately in each hand, and to be used as separate controllers for multiple players. They also work vertically, horizontally, and have gyros inside for waggling and tilting, and infrared for pointing.
I don’t personally have a huge appetite to use them on PC, but they are perfect for little hands. I mostly play the Nintendo Switch with my six-year-old, and if I was setting him up on PC to play something, being able to put a small controller in his hand that fits him and which he is familiar with is an excellent option.
To opt-in to Steam’s client betas, you need to open up Steam, head to Settings, and then on the Account tab, click “Change” under the “Beta participation” section. Select “Steam Beta Update” from the dropdown. In my experience, the betas don’t result in Steam being unstable in any way.