Game has controller support issues for some players

[dhxjarsyl]

***Edit***: I have updated the post because my initial title was a rant titled "Blatantly lying about controller support", and people were extremely upset over my grandiose generalization and rant. As to how/why my title personally affected them or why they seem to think my title was more important and rage inducing than like Boko Haram and the crap the Sacklers got away with...who knows. But the generally consensus seems to be if you have a bug and rant about it, you are monster.

Every past Bethesda game I have played has worked with Xbox controllers right out of the box, yet I just spent 30 minutes trying to get my xbox controller to work on Starfield and failed. The problem is bad enough that dozens of website already exist to give troubleshooting tips (some helped, but none fully worked), and yet somehow not a single review seems to mention this issue. There are already posts popping up on reddit and forums hundreds (maybe thousands) of people saying their controllers (even MS controllers) aren't working right in Starfield, despite working in every other steam game that supports them.

[Yukito For Ever]

Originally posted by NihilVerum:

Why are you playing the game on PC with a controller.

why not?

[Geeky]

I had to use DS4Windows to get my Dualsense controller to work. No biggie.

[JBrown247]

My xbox controllers work just fine. Even played it through steamlink

[UNBREAKABLE]

Originally posted by NihilVerum:

Why are you playing the game on PC with a controller.

Because one of the many perks of PC is customization and the fact you can plug in anything and it usually works instead of being trapped in a closed system like consoles.

There are also games where keyboard and mouse are an option but isn't necessarily better than controllers either, Hades comes to mind, same as Katamari. Lots of games aren't made for anything other than analog input period.

[DeadLine]

Xbox Controllers work fine.

[Solvem Probler]

Originally posted by The Geologist:

Originally posted by NihilVerum:

Why are you playing the game on PC with a controller.

Some people like myself prefer controller as we think its better.

You probably also take fotos of your monitor instead of screenshots.

[uL Willy-G]

works perfectly fine on controller

[AoD_lexandro]

Originally posted by dhxjarsyl:

Apparently this is a surprise to people, but bugs don't affect everyone, that isn't how bugs work. Google "Starfield controller not working on steam" or some iteration of that and you will see I am not making this up. Somehow, despite being MS exclusive now MS controllers aren't working right for a lot of people. The same controllers which work fine in Skyrim and Fallout 4 I can't play starfield with. It is great it works for ya'll, but that doesn't help the people it doesn't work for.

Yeah but dollars to donuts this is not a game bug. I am willing to bet it is in fact the usual "steam controller support" issue that happens in multiple games on steam for years. Simply put if a game has native support for a controller you NEVER use steam controller support.

Why?

Because it stops native support in games working properly.

Originally posted by dhxjarsyl:

Originally posted by Sakari Foxx:

I have 60 hours played.
On steam.

With an Xbox elite controller


Have you tried any personal troubleshooting before coming here ?

Ya, but this is the problem with the current market in video games. I can either trouble shoot a little bit and return the game if I fail, or I can keep troubleshooting and be completely unable to refund the game because I exceeded playtime requirements even if I never get it working. "Have you troubleshot" is mutually exclusive with "can only return if you have less than 2 hours of total time with the game being launched".

If my thinking is correct, its nothing to do with the game at all but a steam issue that has been around for years.

Go to steam options and disable all controller support options and any keybinds you have stored for steam input. Unplug and re-plug the controller from the USB slot. It should now work as standard in Starfield.

[Pooh Daddy]

Did you pirate the game?

[dhxjarsyl]

Originally posted by AoD_lexandro:

Originally posted by dhxjarsyl:

Apparently this is a surprise to people, but bugs don't affect everyone, that isn't how bugs work. Google "Starfield controller not working on steam" or some iteration of that and you will see I am not making this up. Somehow, despite being MS exclusive now MS controllers aren't working right for a lot of people. The same controllers which work fine in Skyrim and Fallout 4 I can't play starfield with. It is great it works for ya'll, but that doesn't help the people it doesn't work for.

Yeah but dollars to donuts this is not a game bug. I am willing to bet it is in fact the usual "steam controller support" issue that happens in multiple games on steam for years. Simply put if a game has native support for a controller you NEVER use steam controller support.

Why?

Because it stops native support in games working properly.

Originally posted by dhxjarsyl:

Ya, but this is the problem with the current market in video games. I can either trouble shoot a little bit and return the game if I fail, or I can keep troubleshooting and be completely unable to refund the game because I exceeded playtime requirements even if I never get it working. "Have you troubleshot" is mutually exclusive with "can only return if you have less than 2 hours of total time with the game being launched".

If my thinking is correct, its nothing to do with the game at all but a steam issue that has been around for years.

Go to steam options and disable all controller support options and any keybinds you have stored for steam input. Unplug and re-plug the controller from the USB slot. It should now work as standard in Starfield.

I'll assume you just kind of got lost in the other comments and whatnot...but I already troubleshot the issue as best I could with the limited timeframe I have to refund the game. I already enabled and disabled steam controller support. Also, again, these exact controllers work fine in every other steam game, including Skyrim, Fallout 4, and fallout 76.

[jerrypocalypse]

I've only used the XBox One controller sfor all of my 50 hours without issue. Worked at first boot up and still works tonight. Sounds like your issue is on your end OP

[Mdaddy924]

Originally posted by Pooh Daddy:

Did you pirate the game?

game is "free" with gamepass, likely coming in from there.

[AoD_lexandro]

Well that's the point they do work as normal when Steam controller support is disabled properly. I am not bashing you for using one, I have an X elite controller myself but playing with the keyboard and mouse for accuracy. I use the controller for driving games mostly.

The major difference here is that Steam itself got a major revamp a few months ago. It is also quiet buggy atm. The previous titles had a much more stable version to work with, and even then it crapped out at times with controller support.

Just a shame you could not get help in the time frame to let you "get on" playing and deciding if you like it or not.

[dhxjarsyl]

Originally posted by jerrypocalypse:

I've only used the XBox One controller sfor all of my 50 hours without issue. Worked at first boot up and still works tonight. Sounds like your issue is on your end OP

ya, I must have done it wrong where I clicked the "install" button, and then the "play" button and immediately had the controller not be recognized. I must have also done something wrong in the 30 or so minutes I spent trying to trouble shoot it and in doing so somehow caused dozens of websites to be created offering troubleshooting tips for a problem that doesn't exist and to cause others to make reddit posts and stream posts all with varying degrees of controller issues. That is a far more likely scenario than "the game has poor controller support and some get lucky and it works fine and others get unlucky and it doesn't".

[dhxjarsyl]

"Well that's the point they do work as normal when Steam controller support is disabled properly"

Are you ESL dude are just a troll? I enabled THEN DISABLED steam controller support. I can assure you, for me they do not work with steam controller support disabled. Since it was already disabled when I first launched it, I had to enable it before I could actually disable it...because that is how toggle switches and check boxes work...