Because a mouse and keyboard works just fine for most games. Valve is in a unique position where Steam itself can do the remapping. Epic* and others are too lazy to do something that useful.
this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2026
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Mouse and keyboard are awkward on the sofa.
Yes so people would only play games with good controller input.
Right, so a better controller would be better.
A configurable controller lets people play games meant for a mouse and keyboard a lot better, like TF2.
There just hasn't been political/economic will to do it so far because most PC gamers have a mouse and keyboard setup anyway, and consoles have historically satiated the TV gamers.
I wonder how much of this is driven by aging gamers like myself who want to recline on a sofa in front of their wall-sized TV with surround sound and play anything they like.
The demand for that has always existed. Consoles just keep getting worse as PCs become more powerful and affordable. And because Microsoft is run by incompetent morons.
“Consoles keep getting worse?”
You’re being dishonest.
"Most" is highly subjective based on what someone plays, though. Lots of racing and flying games are objectively worse on kbm due to the need for throttles or steering which require some kind of analog input.
No, "most" can in principal be answered objectively. "Most games that a particular person plays" depends on the person, but that's not relevant when talking about why there aren't more PC-first gamepads, the topic of discussion.
According to SteamDB less than 21k games have "controller" as a feature. There's 488k in total. I think it's pretty safe to say that most are KB and Mouse focused.
And how many of those actually work with controllers, but the devs simply forgot to add that tag? Probably a lot
As I commented elsewhere. Do you honestly think even 1/4 of the games on steam even support controller?
Not even getting into just technically working with controller vs on par with kb/m vs actually better than kb/m. Just functions enough to play the game. It's pretty safe to say the vast majority of games on steam do not work well with controllers.
Do you honestly think even 1/4 of the games on steam even support controller?
Yes, yes I do.
It's pretty safe to say
No, it's not. You haven't provided adequate sources to prove your claim. All you've done is sourced a minimum number of games that support controllers, then touted that number as it if was a maximum. That is not thorough research in the slighteat
This is disingenuous. Of those 488k, how many are actually playable games? How many of each genre are represented? How many per genre have controller support? Again, it really comes down to library and genre preferences.
What doesn't change is that keyboards are generally incapable of analog input, and some genres of games explicitly require analog input.
I think a better question is "how many of them are fully listing their features/tags?"
Even if only 1/4 of them are playable games that's still 20x the amount of games that support controller. Your personal preference does not affect the vast majority of games on steam don't support controller.
No, you have simply shown that the majority of entries in SteamDB don't have a "controller" tag.
SteamDB doesn't give you total number of all games, so there's no way to get that info without directly asking them to run the query. But even if they did I doubt you'd accept the answer anyways because I don't think you're interest in talking about this in good faith.
SteamDB doesn't give you total number of all games, so there's no way to get that info without directly asking them to run the query.
Literally was my point two comments above.
Even without those numbers do you even think 1/4 of games support controllers? Not works well enough with controllers, not works better with controllers, just works to a degree with controllers?
It's pretty safe to say the vast majority of games aren't fit for controllers.
Sure, technically analog input, but good luck getting a throttle or steering control to stay in the right spot while using the range of travel of a single keyboard key.
An analog stick or even a trigger would provide significantly better range of motion and thus higher accuracy in gameplay.
Best kbm option for those kinds of controls generally are things like mouse steer, which still kind of suck. I'm not hating on keyboards -- it's just not really correct to say they're always superior.
Mouse and keyboard is superior to a controller in almost every aspect. There are probably some games or types of games where a controller is more responsive, but I doubt they are the majority. If you have a machine that already has a mouse and keyboard, the market for controllers then becomes restricted to that niche where it actually offers a benefit.
Can a keyboard let me move in more than 8 directions? Can it let me tap/hold the sprint button, or tap that quick heal button without either moving the while hand, or needing me to constantly snap my hand in unnatural position? Especially if you only need a few buttons to play the game, a controller is nicer because you actually hold it. Like us apes do with things.
This is like telling someone playing guitar is superior to a flute, and ignoring how much harder it is
There are lots of games I sit at the PC and play with a controller because I find those types of game more enjoyable with one.
Platformers, racing games, any third-person game - all better for me on controller.
First-person games, management sims, deckbuilders and a bunch of others however - all better with mouse and keyboard.
I’m sure PC players will drown me in negativity but there is a reason controllers continue to dominate the gaming community: They’re more fun to use.
Fuck Mouse and Keyboard. It’s a niche community when compared to the prevalence of controllers.
Yes to combining and evolving controllers to more closely match mouse and keyboard functionality.