Steam Deck Had Analog Stick Drift Issues, but Valve Has Already Pushed a Fix

New hardware launches are rarely a hundred percent smooth, and these days, their issues often come in the form of analog stick drifting issues. The Nintendo Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S have all had drift issues with their controllers to varying degrees (the Switch in particular), and it seems the Steam Deck launched with the same as well. Unlike other devices, however, Valve’s new handheld PC has already fixed its issues.

Promptly after analog stick drift was first reported by several early Steam Deck users, Valve designer Lawrence Yang took to Twitter and confirmed that after looking into the problem, Valve was able to figure out that it was “a deadzone regression” caused by a recent firmware update. The issues hasn’t just been identified, but fixed as well, with Yang writing, “We just shipped a fix to address the bug, so make sure you’re up to date.”

Not long after Steam Deck was first unveiled, Valve did explicitly promise that the device wouldn’t have any analog stick drifting issues, so it’s great to see that the company is more or less living up to its word.

Hi all, a quick note about Steam Deck thumbsticks. The team has looked into the reported issues and it turns out it was a deadzone regression from a recent firmware update. We just shipped a fix to address the bug, so make sure you’re up to date.

— Lawrence Yang (@lawrenceyang) March 2, 2022