Plus more tactile control options.
Elgato was the first big name company to throw one out with the Stream Deck. This panel of buttons became a host to macros, specifically designed to work mostly with Elgato’s streaming software. Due to the LED screens you could easily program faces for those buttons, and it’s a neat way to control things like your lighting effects, microphone, or screen capture mid stream.
But it has mostly been limited to streaming software, which was always a bit of a disappointment. It meant that when competitors like the Loupedeck Live we reviewed (opens in new tab) came on the scene, which work macros on a wide variety of devices, the Elgato Stream Deck options lost a bit of their appeal.
Elgato seems to have noticed this, and has released the Stream Deck + (opens in new tab) as the newest addition to its lineup of controllers. This is looking like a much more versatile device, that even comes with more button options including tactile knobs, for those of us who are into that kind of thing.
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These extra button options give the new Stream Deck + a much nicer look to it, with a touch screen panel in the middle separating the traditional buttons from the knobs. Plus, they genuinely do look to have different use cases. The website shows off several profiles where you can see how they work, like giving more granular controls to things like volume.
When it comes to audio there’s a complete station built in if you choose to use Elgato’s Wave Link mixing software. It boasts its own library of royalty free tracks which is also a great benefit to streamers looking for simple configurations they won’t get burned for down the line.
Now that Stream Decks are a more common and developed concepts there’s also heaps of plugins for different programs and situations which means you shouldn’t have to set everything up from scratch yourself. This can be one of the biggest barriers to actually using these devices well, so hopefully they’re good.
The Stream Deck + is going for $200 USD on the Elgato store, so it’s not exactly the cheapest piece of kit. It does however come in a bit cheaper than the Loupedeck Live which is $269 USD, so it will be very interesting to compare the two as options for those who’ve gone mad for macros.
Hope Corrigan
Hardware Writer
Hope’s been writing about games for about a decade, starting out way back when on the Australian Nintendo fan site Vooks.net. Since then, she’s talked far too much about games and tech for publications such as Techlife, Byteside, IGN, and GameSpot. Of course there’s also here at PC Gamer, where she gets to indulge her inner hardware nerd with news and reviews. You can usually find Hope fawning over some art, tech, or likely a wonderful combination of them both and where relevant she’ll share them with you here. When she’s not writing about the amazing creations of others, she’s working on what she hopes will one day be her own. You can find her fictional chill out ambient far future sci-fi radio show/album/listening experience podcast (opens in new tab) right here.
No, she’s not kidding.
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