I have been playing Hades a lot recently on my Switch. I’ve had the switch for a couple of years ago, but the long sessions of Hades are the first time I have been dissatisfied with the Joy-cons. The Pro Controller is highly reccommended by Switch fans, but I don’t have £55 to spend on a new controller right now, so I started wondering if I can use my current favourite controller, the Steam controller on the Nintendo Switch.

Steam controller, with a Switch logo

The answer came from the OpenSteamController project on GitHub. The project contains several different threads and lots of documentation, so I’ve pulled together just the bits you need to make make this possible.

You will need:

  1. A steam controller.
  2. A USB-A to micro-B cable, long enough to reach your Switch from your chair.
  3. A computer.
  4. The OpenSteamController firmware, configured for the Switch: OpenSteamControllerNinSwitch.bin

Steps:

  1. Hold the right trigger of your Steam controller, and connect it to your computer with the USB controller. This will put it in USB programming mode, and show up as a USB storage device called “CRP DISABLD”
  2. Back up the default firmware.bin file. On Ubuntu, run dd "if=/media/$USER/CRP DISABLD/firmware.bin" of=~/backup.bin. On other platforms, consult the Loading Firmware documentation.
  3. Load the custom firmware. On Ubuntu, run dd conv=nocreat,notrunc oflag=direct bs=512 if=OpenSteamControllerNinSwitch.bin "of=/media/$USER/CRP DISABLD/firmware.bin"
  4. Unplug the USB cable from your computer, and plug it in to the Switch’s dock. Press L+R to connect, it will show up as a generic “USB” controller. You’re ready to play!

A few things to be aware of about this solution:

  • This process isn’t supported by Valve, Nintendo, me, or anyone else. Proceed at your own risk.
  • The current firmware doesn’t support connecting to the Switch via Bluetooth, you must use a USB cable.
  • The controller won’t work with Steam while using the custom firmware. You can restore the original firmware by running step 3 above with backup.bin as the input file.
  • The A and B buttons on the Switch and Steam controllers are the other way around, so the Steam controller button labelled “B” will function as “A” on the Switch, and vice-versa.
  • The right hand touch pad (which operates as the right stick) is quite sensitive, it will sometimes detect your thumb when you press a button next to it if you aren’t careful.