The Steam Controller launched earlier this week, and within about 30 minutes or so, it had sold out, leading to a lot of disappointed gamers and plenty of greedy online resellers. Now, Valve is promising more stock is coming, and new rules are being activated to try to ensure people who want the new controller can actually buy one in the near future.
The May 4 launch of Valve’s new Steam Controller, which at one point was almost named the Steam Controller 2, was a bit of a trainwreck. Like with nearly every new piece of sought-after tech released these days, users trying to buy the $100 controller ran into error messages, a sluggish Steam store, and eventually the news that it was sold out. Shortly after launch, resellers on eBay were selling the gamepad for $300 or more. Not great. Now Valve has announced a multi-point plan to hopefully make the process of buying its new device a little easier.
Starting tomorrow, May 8, Valve will open a reservation queue for the Steam Controller. Once you’ve reserved your spot, your place in line will then be saved. When the controller goes back in stock in the future, order emails will be sent out to those with reservations in the same order the reservations were placed.
The new rules for buying a Steam Controller
In order to “limit reseller activity,” Valve is also implementing a few new rules on who can reserve and buy a Steam Controller.
Moving forward, you’ll only be able to reserve a single Steam Controller. If you already bought a Steam Controller, you can’t reserve another one yet. Once you get your order email, you have three days to buy it or pass. Users will also have to have a Steam account in “good standing” to buy the controller, and you must have made a Steam purchase before April 27, 2026, on the account you are using to reserve and order the Steam Controller.
“We will start fulfilling reservations next week in the US / Canada, and UK / EU / AU in the following weeks,” explained Valve.
“Steam Controller ran out faster than we anticipated, and we hate that not everyone who wanted one was able to get it,” the company posted on X on May 5.
