A mysterious GameSir wireless gaming controller appeared online late last year, courtesy of video footage uploaded by an unidentified tester. The presence of a Steam logo on the leaked device's central "home/guide" button sent speculation activities into overdrive. The so-called GameSir "Steam Deck Controller" was linked back to a teased Xbox-licensed G7 Pro wireless controller—both designs seem to share a white/gray aesthetic and control layout. At CES 2025, TechPowerUp staffers were fortunate enough to experience hands-on time with GameSir's upcoming Xbox-branded flagship model. Curious visitors did not spot any sign of Steam/Valve-related products at the company's Las Vegas booth. Game Tech Talk—a YouTube channel that covers the latest in handheld gadgets—managed to conduct an interview with Betta; GameSir's CEO. Their virtual discussion was uploaded two (or so) days ago; the 28-minute video explores current and forthcoming products.

When asked about the unannounced "G7 Pro Valve Edition" (aka unofficial Steam Deck Controller), Betta admitted that he was behind last year's leak. This guerilla marketing tactic produced a lot of reactions and feedback from the hardcore gaming controller community; all taken onboard by the young entrepreneur. Betta said that his personal prototype was "hacked together" in order to provide proof of concept to Valve, although he states that GameSir only has a loose relationship with the House of Half-Life. The G7 Pro controller served as a basic foundation for the Steam-oriented variant—with added motion controller capabilities, capacitive stick technology, independently addressable back buttons, and integration into Valve's operating "ecosystem." The fledgling project awaits an official signing-off—with agreements over licensing, branding, software support, etc.—but a firm connection between the two parties is not yet established. Apparently, there were brief interactions during January's CES event. Betta believes that: "people at Valve are pretty hard to reach." GameSir leadership is "figuring out" a plan; they hope to form a direct connection to Valve HQ in the near future.

DICE's PC version has been leaked to various torrent sites almost two weeks before release on October 28th, with console versions being safe for now, DSOGaming reports. This is perhaps unsurprising because most, if not all high profile games are leaked early one way or another. It looks like it might have possibly been done by a retailer - but why would they risk reducing sales of the product like this? Perhaps a disgruntled employee? We can only speculate. Apparently, the single player campaign is fully playable and the file size weighs in at around 10GB.

The one thing that seems to hold true about such situations, as undesirable as they are, is that a game's success will be on its own merit, regardless of how much it has been downloaded illegally. No doubt though, however large the profits from this game turn out to be (and they're likely to be substantial for this triple A title) the publishers will complain that they would have been even bigger without piracy, but without being able to offer any actual proof of this, of course.