Multiple controllers on a single dongle?

[KingBorg]

To me, one of the most interesting features of the steam controller is that multiple controllers can pair to one puck.

 

This is a pretty cool feature, considering that bluetooth seems to break down beyond 3 controllers (and when you have friends over is the worst time for technical difficulties...)

 

I was wondering if anyone knows of other controllers with this feature? I looked through the offerings of 8bitdo and GameSir and it seems like none support multiple controllers connected to a single dongle.

[OhioYJ]

1 hour ago, KingBorg said:

I was wondering if anyone knows of other controllers with this feature?

Xbox? I always have 4 paired to my Xbox wireless adapter to play party / couch co-op games. IIRC it supports up to 8 controllers at once. 

[jaslion]

4 hours ago, KingBorg said:

of other controllers with this feature

Xbox can do up to 8 we play duckgame like that. HOWEVER the elite controllers only work up to 4 for some stupid reason

[OhioYJ]

4 hours ago, jaslion said:

HOWEVER the elite controllers only work up to 4 for some stupid reason

Probably becase of the extra buttons. The regular controllers get limited to 4 as well if you add anything to them (like headsets).

[KingBorg]

I did think about the xbox controllers (I used to have the xbox 360 dongle back in the day) but it seems like this solution has some asterisks.

 

I cannot find the official xbox dongle anywhere. There are several knockoffs on Amazon that probably work, but is not as reassuring as first party. And it is not listed on the xbox website under accessories.

 

Also there is the matter of drivers. I am looking for something to run on my steam deck. There is an open source driver for the official xbox dongle, and forum posts indicate that it works on the steam deck, but it is not plug and play.

 

I does seem like third party controller manufacturers (EG 8bitdo) only support SteamOS with bluetooth; some forum posts indicate that there might be a workaround to get 2.4G to work by switching to Xinput, but not everyone agrees that that works.

 

I guess I didn't realize that it was important to mention that I am using this on a steam deck, so I am looking for a linux-compatible solution.