The New Steam Controller Literally Screams When You Drop It

Valve appears to have managed to sneak in one of the weirdest Easter eggs we have seen in a while inside the new Steam Controller. Apparently, if you accidentally drop the controller from high enough, the controller lets out a dramatic scream mid-fall, almost like it already knows its fate before smashing into the floor below or even padded surface. Yes, seriously, listen to it yourself in the video embedded below.

Valve turned dropping your controller into a comedy sketch

The feature was first spotted by Reddit user RF3D19 and later confirmed by folks at PC Gamer. According to users testing the feature, the scream only works while Steam is running in Big Picture mode. There is also reportedly “a timeout period about a minute long so that you can’t do it over and over immediately.” It seems Valve clearly thought ahead about people repeatedly tossing the controller around just to hear it panic again.

What makes this even stranger is the fact that the new Steam Controller does not appear to include a dedicated speaker. However, the sound seems to come through the controller’s haptics system. In simple terms, Valve may be using vibration motors to recreate the scream effect at low quality. Many would think that it may be bizarre and slightly unnecessary, but I honestly feel it’s pretty cool.

The sound itself resembles the famous Wilhelm scream, which has basically become Hollywood’s favorite stock panic sound effect over the years. So, instead of hearing a sad plastic thud after dropping your $99 controller, you now get a full dramatic send-off before impact.

As you may know, the first round of Steam Controller sales was nothing short of chaos, but it got even worse with scalping issue. Valve is aware of the situation and has confirmed a reservation-based queuing system for the next round of sales. If you haven’t got yours, make sure to line yourself up in the queue so you can try the new controller and maybe hear the dramatic scream at least once.