Is an individual controller tied to your Steam account?

[Deviro]

I ordered the controller on 29th October, but it's going to ship way down the line in Dec and I really don't wan to wait that much. So I'm thinking about buying one second hand from eBay and cancelling my pre-order here.

My question is are these controllers tied to individual Steam accounts where if it was "activated" on one account you couldn't update its firmware/use it with another one?

Has anyone tested this?

[Alexander Prime]

My roommate and I each bought one, and can use them interchangeably regardless of who's logged in. If there is a way to identify one controller from another, Steam doesn't seem to use it, so I'd say go nuts.

[God Ginrai]

No, they are not tied to your account currently.

[Deviro]

Originally posted by Alexander Prime:

My roommate and I each bought one, and can use them interchangeably regardless of who's logged in. If there is a way to identify one controller from another, Steam doesn't seem to use it, so I'd say go nuts.

So this makes be believe that the individual controllers are tied to their dongle? Or something like that.

I basically don't want to buy this second hand just to see that it might not work on my machine, because someone else used it on their computer.

Thanks for the quick response.

[Alexander Prime]

Nope, the dongles are dumb as well. You'll need to do a one-time pairing so the controller knows which to talk to when it wakes up, but you can connect as many controllers as you like to a single dongle.

Within technical limitations, of course.

[8BitCerberus]

Well, not as many, you can pair up to 4 controllers to a single dongle. But yeah, otherwise both the controller and dongle are not attached to your account in any way.

[God Ginrai]

Originally posted by 8-Bit Cerberus:

Well, not as many, you can pair up to 4 controllers to a single dongle. But yeah, otherwise both the controller and dongle are not attached to your account in any way.

Originally posted by Alexander Prime:

Within technical limitations, of course.

[Sanaki]

They designed the controller for functionality, not inane profit-mongering. It works how you want it to work basically.

[Deviro]

Thanks for all the responses everybody. :)

[Juan "Zero Tap" Deag]

Originally posted by Deviro:

Originally posted by Alexander Prime:

My roommate and I each bought one, and can use them interchangeably regardless of who's logged in. If there is a way to identify one controller from another, Steam doesn't seem to use it, so I'd say go nuts.

So this makes be believe that the individual controllers are tied to their dongle? Or something like that.

I basically don't want to buy this second hand just to see that it might not work on my machine, because someone else used it on their computer.

Thanks for the quick response.

You can pair your controller to a new dongle. In Steam Big Picture Mode, go into setting > controller add/test > add controller, then on the controller you want to add you hold down X while powering it on and it will pair to the new dongle. Should be about the same on the Link. Your controller can also be paired to the dongle and link at the same time, just hold down the A button while turning on the controller and it will switch between the two automatically.

I know you don't have the controller yet, just letting you know that it's that easy.

[Deviro]

Originally posted by Psychopath90:

I know you don't have the controller yet, just letting you know that it's that easy.

I checked out Big Picture and I didn't know that it already had everything in there. I thought there would be like a separate software with the dongle and stuff. It seems pretty easy and strightforward by the looks of it.

Didn't expect it to be THAT easy, you know.

[Juan "Zero Tap" Deag]

Originally posted by Deviro:

Originally posted by Psychopath90:

I know you don't have the controller yet, just letting you know that it's that easy.

I checked out Big Picture and I didn't know that it already had everything in there. I thought there would be like a separate software with the dongle and stuff. It seems pretty easy and strightforward by the looks of it.

Didn't expect it to be THAT easy, you know.

Yup it's all there. I hope that they make it so you can configure it outside of BPM though. I would rather use the desktop version of steam when I'm at my computer.

[東方ＨＩＪＡＣＫ]

Originally posted by Deviro:

I ordered the controller on 29th October, but it's going to ship way down the line in Dec and I really don't wan to wait that much. So I'm thinking about buying one second hand from eBay and cancelling my pre-order here.

I preordered one through gamestop.com last week and just received shipping confirmation. That might be an option for you if you'd rather have a new one or don't want to pay whatever eBay will be selling them for.

[Deviro]

Originally posted by 東方ＨＩＪＡＣＫ:

I preordered one through gamestop.com last week and just received shipping confirmation. That might be an option for you if you'd rather have a new one or don't want to pay whatever eBay will be selling them for.

I was actually going to buy a second hand one for around £25 ($35), but was discouraged by other people who shop at eBay more often. On the other hand Steam charged me £47.