You really don’t want to drop most gadgets, like your phone, other handhelds, or even a game controller. There’s a chance they’ll break. But Valve has taken things in a new direction with its updated Steam Controller. It probably contains one of the funniest Easter eggs discovered in a device like this. If you drop it, it will occasionally play the infamous Wilhelm Scream – the scream is random. There’s also a cooldown, so repeated falls may not produce it, which adds to the fun.
You never know when it’s going to ring. One of the first users to discover the scream, RF3D19, shared a YouTube video of it in action. Naturally, they drop their controller on a bed and a soft, cushy surface rather than throwing it on the floor. They don’t bring him down from very high either. Keep this in mind if you want to test this yourself.
The controller isn’t exactly cheap, launching recently on May 4 for $99, a price equivalent to a professional-grade console controller. If you break it while throwing it, good luck trying to get your hands on a new Steam controller. Apparently, you don’t need to pair or connect the controller to any devices, including a Steam Deck or PC. And if for some reason you’ve never heard of the Wilhelm Scream, it’s a popular sound effect that appears in hundreds, if not thousands, of movies and shows.
The Steam Controller doesn’t have a speaker, it’s haptics only
Another strange thing to note is that the Steam Controller doesn’t have built-in speakers like the PS5’s DualSense. Instead, audio is played through the haptic motors, produced when they reach a certain frequency. This explains why Wilhelm’s sound would be weak. There’s actually a tool called SteamHapticsSinger on GitHub, first shared by PC Gamer, that lets you play simple but personalized songs via the controller’s haptics. The program is based on an original tool used for the first controller released in 2015.
It reads MIDI files, so again, nothing complex, but it’s still a great achievement nonetheless. There are demonstrations of the controller playing “Still Alive” from “Portal”, music from the Wii Shop and the track Rick Roll from Internet darling Rick Astley – you know the one. It will be interesting to see what else everyone discovers about the Steam controller as people spend more time with it. Although Valve may have confirmed some fears regarding the Steam Machine with the release date having been pushed back, Valve is certainly keeping everyone entertained in the meantime.
