Steam’s Input API now offers full PS5 controller support

Thanks to Steam’s latest client update, Valve has delivered full support for Sony’s PlayStation 5 controller on PC through the Steam Input API. Through this API, developers can utilise the PS5 controller’s LEDs, trackpad, rumble and Gyro features. 

Right now, this support is available as an opt-in client beta, though wider support is planned after additional testing. Currently, Death Stranding, No Man’s Sky, Horizon: Zero Dawn and several other titles officially support the previously listed features of Sony’s PS4 and PS5 gamepads. 

With the Steam Input API, Valve allows developers to support a wide range of gamepads with limited developer-side integrations, supporting over 200 input devices which include the PlayStation 4’s gamepad, the Switch Pro controller, and a variety of racing wheels, joysticks and more. 

On Steam, gamepad use is growing. Over the past two years, controller use has doubled on Steam, thanks in part to a growing list of console-friendly titles on the platform. Remakes of console classics like the Crash Bandicoot N’Sane Trilogy and PC ports of recent console exclusives like Horizon Zero Dawn have pushed more PC games towards gamepads. While mouse and keyboard is preferable for many titles, it is hard to deny that a lot of modern games are designed with gamepads in mind. 

Steam also supports gamepad emulation, mapping the appropriate buttons on a PlayStation 5 gamepad to equivalent inputs on more commonly supported gamepads. While this support level is not a robust as Steam Input API support, it does allow newer gamepads to support older titles.