No controller support with Steam Input enabled?

[Good Gambler]

Does this game not support any controllers without the usage of steam input?

[Guppyshark]

it supports ps5, xbox, and apparently even nintendo switch pro controllers without steam input

[Good Gambler]

Weird. I have an Xbox and a DualSense controller and both of them won't work unless steam input is enabled. Doesn't even work wired in.

[stooo10]

"problem seems to be people turning steam input off when their controller needs it, fix is to turn it on. "

https://steamcommunity.com/app/2622380/discussions/0/597408128295826129

[stooo10]

"You have to enable steam input or leave it on default for this game."

https://steamcommunity.com/app/2622380/discussions/0/597402121489484932/

[Kobret]

On elden ring you can turn it off and it will work, but not on nightreign.

[Guppyshark]

that's odd because i've been using a dualsense since release with no (consistent) issues... i have had temporary problems but they were caused by either tabbing out of the game as it started up (which also made the game only take inputs while another program was focused) or only plugging the controller in shortly after launching, both of which were fixed by restarting the game and not touching other programs on my pc until it was done.

does enabling steam input mid game make it work? if so maybe steam is trying to intercept the inputs of your controller regardless of settings for some reason. try going to steam's global settings and disable steam input entirely for the controller type before launching?

[Good Gambler]

Originally posted by Guppyshark:

that's odd because i've been using a dualsense since release with no (consistent) issues... i have had temporary problems but they were caused by either tabbing out of the game as it started up (which also made the game only take inputs while another program was focused) or only plugging the controller in shortly after launching, both of which were fixed by restarting the game and not touching other programs on my pc until it was done.

does enabling steam input mid game make it work? if so maybe steam is trying to intercept the inputs of your controller regardless of settings for some reason. try going to steam's global settings and disable steam input entirely for the controller type before launching?

Yeah, you can disable steam input in-game but the thing is that I tried it both ways. Disabling it before booting, and trying a couple of different controllers. Neither work for me. Steam Input is required. And according to the post that's linked above, that's just how this game is? Idk it's just very strange to me that even a From Soft game in 2025 would be lacking native controller support, even though it says it does on the store page.

[Guppyshark]

but i don't use steam input and my controllers work fine. the game is not just like this, and the store page says it has native controller support because it does. something's clearly going wrong with your (and those other users') steam input, os, or the game itself for some reason.

if the controller works (with steam input disabled) in other steam games i have no idea what the problem is, but if it doesn't you should try a non-steam game or program that accepts controller inputs with steam fully closed (not visible in task manager or the taskbar). steam input has a "desktop input" mode that will occasionally just not respect the setting that disables it if the controller has steam input enabled, so maybe that's what's happening here

[Guppyshark]

i realize this is a bit old now but i'd like to correct this: i was wrong, steam input IS required for at least ps and nintendo controllers to work. i was under the assumption that having steam input off for my controllers in games without support would not allow it to be used, but it seems developers can configure games to require steam input to support them which is what fromsoft did here.

you can see that this is the case by going to the nightreign's steam properties > controller, where (if left on defaults) it will say steam input is enabled, set by the developer.

my bad so the answer to your question is actually: no, there is no support for any controllers without steam input. very odd considering elden ring wasn't like this.