Steam games won't recognize xbox controller unless it was ON when the game first launched

[Vitamin Arrr]

Yo valve,

Fix your garbageware! My Steam games refuse to recognize my Xbox controller (connected over bluetooth) unless it was ON when the game first launched. I.e. it won't auto detect the controller turning on after launch.

Yes, Steam itself recognizes it.
Yes, I've tried various other controllers, all with the same issue.
Yes, all my drivers and firmwares are the latest version.
Yes, I'm on Windows 11.

Honestly this glitchy garbageware makes consoles attractive if only to just have games that just freaking work. Why are simple peripherals so impossible for you Windows developers to understand? Why can you not make anything good?

Fire whoever is running your development team and get someone who knows what the hell they are doing.

[ReBoot]

This ranty post certainly doesn't inspire any motivation to word a proper answer...

[CZI]

I guess that's depends on the game.

[Nx Machina]

On Windows 10, no issues......

[blunus]

Worked for me on Windows 10. Since it's your PC causing a controller issue, only you can fix it.

No idea what's on your PC or how it's configured on the game.

[AtmaDarkwolf]

I have similar issue with some games, some do not have the problem, personally I think its related to the game in question. (Also reverse is true, some games 'detect' controller that was on when game starts, and 'refuse' to switch back to kb/m controls if controller is removed)

Simple restart of the game always fixes it.

Yes its an annoyance, but really a small one considering all the OTHER problems one can be having.

[no154370]

best answer

1) use USB port to connect your controller to the CPU

i have learned that Bluetooth are the one causing problems when connecting controllers to computer.

[nomadedge]

It depends on the game. If you see a pop-up from Steam about your controller being connected - Steam has done his part of the job.

[jasoncollege24]

Getting hostile, and insulting the devs over something so small will not generally get you the results you want.

That being said, this does happen with some games on Steam, and even other platforms (eg games from other launchers, or games without any launchers). A really simple solution is to just connect your controller, before you play the game. This is what I do.

If you're using an XBox One controller, and you have the option of using a USB Wireless Adapter (which comes with some xbox controllers, when purchased, specifically for Windows), use the adapter. You may still have to connect the controller before running some games, but they are less likely to lose the controller, if it turns off, and back on.

I honestly believe this may be game specific, and not a problem with Steam itself.

I really don't see why turning on the controller, before playing a game is so difficult. People use controllers to turn on their consoles, and always have them on, when launching games there, so the logic is the same. Why is this so hard to grasp?

[Vitamin Arrr]

Originally posted by no154370:

best answer

1) use USB port to connect your controller to the CPU

i have learned that Bluetooth are the one causing problems when connecting controllers to computer.

I agree that it only happens with Blue Tooth, but here's the thing: it also only happens with Steam games (MS FS 2020, NMS, Elite, Metro Exodus, etc.) whereas if I play Forza through the XBOX app, this never happens.

I believe it's because Steam "wraps" the Xbox controller in its own weird controller configuration, which means that Steam games don't access the controller hardware directly but instead they use Steam's APIs that wrap it.

However because Steam is amateur-hour garbage designed to take a huge percent of their revenue away from game developers and nothing more, Valve doesn't care if their crappy system doesn't work properly leading to a bad user experience. Because they know idiots will keep buying games on Steam out of habit or because they already have a big investment there, they are totally unmotivated to provide a modern user experience or perform QA checks on integrations. No, Valve would much rather keep the same exact UX as they had 10 years ago than try to compete with the kind of slick experience that you can get almost everywhere else.

I mean, have you actually seen the "Big Picture" UI? It looks like something made by an intern in 2004. The way it plays that loud animation on first launch whose sound abruptly ends without even a smooth fadeout makes me mute my volume every time it happens. More than a few times their on-screen keyboard for controller use got me stuck on just a blueish screen where the keyboard dismissed but the wrapper around it did not, after which the game stopped responding to commands.

It's pretty clear they only support game controllers because they have to, not because they want to, or because they actually care about the gamer having a good experience.

If I could just have all my Steam purchases refunded I would but given that's very unlikely, I hope someone at Valve who has some actual decision-making authority reads this and freakin' does something about it.

Or y'know, just assume I'm wrong because my post is long and blunt, and carry on assuming everything is fine and there's nothing to see here—which I'm pretty sure is 100% likely to happen or else surely they would have already known about this from other people. (I cannot be the first or only person to experience this and then write about it.)

BTW, my system is extremely vanilla: Asus Z490-P, Intel 10900K, EVGA 3080 XC3 (awesome GPU by the way, love EVGA), not overclocked, Windows 11 Pro upgraded from Windows 10 Pro, all the latest drivers and firmware for everything, and not a lot of extra stuff installed besides Visual Studio due to being used exclusively for gaming (no anti-malware other than a manual scanner that has no active processes running).

Note: it's not the controller, I have tried a bunch of different Xbox controllers with tge same result. (Have not tried a PS4 or PS5 one though). I have no other BT devices connected aside from that controller; my keyboard is a Logitech wireless keyboard that uses its own USB dongle and proprietary wireless system (I'm starting to see why! LOL).

[Vitamin Arrr]

Originally posted by jasoncollege24:

Getting hostile, and insulting the devs over something so small will not generally get you the results you want.

This is not about what I want. I'm not against Valve or anyone here but I want to see them succeed and make great products. I'm just trying to do a public service by letting you all know there is a problem here and that the customer experience is sub-par as a result.

Maybe it's wrong of me to suggest someone should be held responsible for that but I guess I'm old fashioned; if someone isn't making sure the product is good then find someone who will. That's not to say anyone's not working hard but it's probably more of a leadership/priorities issue.

My stance is that if Valve cares about user experience, they would welcome any feedback and act on it. Any benefit of that is for them, not me.

If Valve doesn't care, that's their problem not mine. It's up to them if they want to wake up and realize the days are over when they had no real competition on this platform in terms of a games marketplace. They need to get back to innovating their software platform; I think they seem to have been focused a lot more on innovating on the hardware side, which is great and all, but I'm concerned about a lack of progress I've seen from them on the software platform side in the two years since I bought my first gaming PC.

I think from the outside it seems like they need to learn how to walk and chew gum at the same time—not meant as an insult but, it's just extremely difficult to do software *and* hardware well, and Valve has slowly been becoming more hardware focused after starting as a pure software company. Maybe take a page from other vertically integrated companies like Apple, Nintendo, and (kind of) Microsoft, to figure out how to do a better job of ensuring good software with a modern UI/UX while also innovating on the hardware side.

[76561198407601200]

Originally posted by Vitamin Arrr:

Originally posted by jasoncollege24:

Getting hostile, and insulting the devs over something so small will not generally get you the results you want.

This is not about what I want. I'm not against Valve or anyone here but I want to see them succeed and make great products. I'm just trying to do a public service by letting you all know there is a problem here and that the customer experience is sub-par as a result.

Maybe it's wrong of me to suggest someone should be held responsible for that but I guess I'm old fashioned; if someone isn't making sure the product is good then find someone who will. That's not to say anyone's not working hard but it's probably more of a leadership/priorities issue.

My stance is that if Valve cares about user experience, they would welcome any feedback and act on it. Any benefit of that is for them, not me.

If Valve doesn't care, that's their problem not mine. It's up to them if they want to wake up and realize the days are over when they had no real competition on this platform in terms of a games marketplace. They need to get back to innovating their software platform; I think they seem to have been focused a lot more on innovating on the hardware side, which is great and all, but I'm concerned about a lack of progress I've seen from them on the software platform side in the two years since I bought my first gaming PC.

I think from the outside it seems like they need to learn how to walk and chew gum at the same time—not meant as an insult but, it's just extremely difficult to do software *and* hardware well, and Valve has slowly been becoming more hardware focused after starting as a pure software company. Maybe take a page from other vertically integrated companies like Apple, Nintendo, and (kind of) Microsoft, to figure out how to do a better job of ensuring good software with a modern UI/UX while also innovating on the hardware side.

Well best of luck to you in finding a solution to your issue. Looking at your past posts it seems you ask for help int he same fashion by showing anger in your responses than actually resolving the issue.

[Callahan420]

This is actually on a per game basis. I have quite a few that the controller must be on before running. If you want it fixed contact the devs of the game and leave the crap attitude out of it.

[crunchyfrog]

What do you expect frankly?

Bugger all to do with Steam. Each game detects what controllers are there when you boot them up - that's how they're supposed to work, so if you havent' got it connected and recognised before you boot the game up, what do you expect?

[Nx Machina]

And yet the solution is in the title so what is there for Valve to fix .

Steam games won't recognize xbox controller unless it was ON when the game first launched.