Valve’s new Steam Controller launches Monday, Mechanism readies phone mount accessory

Valve’s new Steam Controller goes on sale Monday at 10 a.m. Pacific for $99, and Mechanism is ready with what it says is the first way to attach the controller to a phone. The Basegrip and Phone Mount add-on fits into Mechanism’s growing modular system and can switch between portrait and landscape use.

Valve is pitching the new controller as a Steam Input device meant to move across its hardware lineup, including PC, laptop, Steam Deck, Steam Machine and Steam Frame. That framing matters because it places the controller in a broader ecosystem rather than treating it as a one-off accessory. The company is betting that one controller can follow players from desk to couch to handheld use, with Steam Input doing the heavy lifting across devices.

The launch also revives a product with a long memory among Steam users. Valve first released the original Steam Controller in 2015 and discontinued it in 2019, after a run that made it a cult favorite despite its unusual trackpad-based design. The original sold more than 2 million units before Valve pulled it from sale, a sign that there was real demand for a controller that did not look or feel like the standard console model.

Mechanism is moving quickly to meet that demand with hardware built for an increasingly mobile way of playing. The company says all of its grips and mounts are designed to work together, from Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch to ROG Ally, PlayStation Portal and other handhelds. Its Basegrip and Phone Mount collection extends that approach to Valve’s new controller, and the phone mount can clip onto any Mechanism grip or even the company’s Gaming Pillow.

That modular pitch is paired with an unusually open design philosophy. Mechanism says its digital 3D-print files are free to download and remix, even as it warns that printed parts have limitations. The company says its ecosystem grew out of a 3D-printed design shaped by community engagement, a path that has helped it expand from its original Deckmate Steam Deck accessory line into a wider catalog of grips, kickstands, mounts and adhesive attachments.

Mechanism also sells a separate Phone Mount for $25 and a Deckmate Grip for $19, underscoring how quickly accessory makers are building around Valve’s hardware bets. The new Steam Controller may be a fresh release, but the bigger story is the platform around it: gaming hardware is becoming more modular, more portable and more dependent on third-party products that promise to stretch one device across more places and more ways to play.